ADFF Toronto 2025: Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story

What does a country’s design aesthetic reveal about its identity? That’s the animating question behind Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story (2024), a documentary that pairs cultural inquiry with personal narrative. At its center is Nicholas Lowry, a Czech-American auctioneer and obsessive collector who returns to his ancestral homeland to investigate a design tradition, a national identity, and himself.

Dressed in his tartan suit and armed with a healthy dose of humor, Lowry travels across the Czech Republic—from Zlín to Brno, Litomyšl to Pilsen—encountering the visual language of design legends like Alfons Mucha, Ladislav Sutnar, and Josef Váchal. The film weaves through local traditions, historic design landmarks, and conversations with contemporary artists, resulting in a vibrant tribute to the power of visual language.

About the Architecture and Design Film Festival

The Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF)—North America’s largest film festival dedicated to architecture and design—is coming back to Toronto for another year of great films and insightful discussions! From November 12-15, catch one of their amazing lineup of 13 films, from all over the world. Looking for the full list of films showcased at this year’s ADFF: Toronto? See the complete programme on the festival’s website!

The TSA is proud to once again be partnering with ADFF: Toronto to bring a series of panel discussions and post-screening Q&As that complement this year’s film roster. These panels bring together architects, film-makers, and subject matter experts to further explore the themes of each film and bring them back to our local context here in Toronto.

TSA MEMBERS: Members get discounted tickets to all showings at ADFF: Toronto! Keep an eye out for the code in the announcement of the ticket sales launch.