Surge In Canadian Pride Brings A Risograph To Every Pocket

In early 2025, as restrictive US trade tariffs and renewed rhetoric about Canada becoming the “51st state” circulated south of the border, a wave of renewed national pride began to take shape across Canada. Illustrator, graphic designer, and printmaker Paul Dotey responded not with slogans, but with paper.

Under his imprint Anecdotey Press, Dotey launched a series of risograph-printed Pocket Guides designed to place foundational Canadian texts and geographies directly into people’s hands. Compact, affordable, and locally produced, the booklets are as much acts of civic engagement as they are design objects.

The first in the series, The Pocket Guide to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, reproduces the Charter verbatim in a six-page risograph booklet that unfolds into a tabloid-sized poster. Typeset in Helvetica and Baskerville, the two typefaces used in official government communications, the publication mirrors the visual language of state documents while recontextualising it in a more intimate format.

Printed in Toronto at Colour Code Press using a two-colour process, black plus a thematic colour, the 11 x 17 inch sheet folds down to a 4.25 x 5.5 inch book that fits neatly into a pocket. Each copy is folded and packaged by Dotey himself, reinforcing the project’s hands-on ethos.

The Charter guide was followed in May by The Pocket Guide to Canada’s National Parks, featuring a summary of parks and reserves alongside a map marking their locations across the country. In October, The Pocket Guide to The Great Lakes expanded the series further with a geological survey of the interconnected lakes on the Canada–US border. The accompanying map highlights the Indigenous and European languages used to name each lake, adding layers of linguistic and historical context.

All three publications have proven popular, with multiple reprints and distribution in bookstores across Canada. Individual sales have also extended worldwide, suggesting that the appeal lies not only in national pride but in the clarity and accessibility of the format itself.

Margot Trudell, founder and director of Toronto Design Directory, described the project succinctly: “This is design for the people! Paul Dotey made a pocket sized Charter for whenever you need to check your rights on win and argument; this is great design: simple, accessible and factual.”

Dotey, who has worked in the art departments of Scholastic, Penguin Random House, and various magazines, and whose illustration clients include Starbucks Canada, Kraft Foods, The Globe & Mail, Toronto Life, and The Wall Street Journal, frequently explores Canadian identity and geography through print. Often working with maps and moving between two and three dimensions, his practice examines the psychogeography of place through storytelling.

With the Pocket Guides, that exploration becomes portable. In a moment of political tension, Dotey chose risograph ink and folded paper as tools of reassurance and empowerment, proving that sometimes the most powerful response is one you can carry in your pocket.

More information:
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