A long long interview for Metallic Mayehm, a rad graphic design book printed only in silver, gold, bronze, and black. Craaaaazy!
Une longue interview pour Metallic Mayhem, un livre de graphisme mortel imprimé en argent, or, bronze, et noir. Craaaaazy!

METALLIC MAYHEM

Please tell us a little more about your background?
Back in my teenage years, I was living in a small and boring city in the South West of France, spending most of my time doing graffiti with one of my friends called Peper. In that period we founded a crew called Middle Classes, and we just couldn’t stop rocking the streets. Our main focus was trying to fight against all the big clichés that could exist in the movement, by painting in a definitely new school vibe. We were influenced by the 3D scene from Germany and Switzerland, which was represented by people like Vespa, Loomit, or Delta, but in a way, I guess I hated graffiti more than I loved it. I was more attracted by the typographical researches, the forms and colors, than by B-boy characters and all those 'wild style' shitty letters. I never bought any graffiti magazines, and always founded more inspiration in graphic design books. So, after a couple of years it became natural for me to explore the computer possibilities, as an extension of what I did on the walls.
For months I taught myself how to use the applications, and about one year later, I met another graphic designer named Delarocca. Our lives were pretty different but we share a lot of influences and sensibilities together, so we established a graphic design crew called Structure. We quickly did our first production, which was a fanzine 'deluxe' about independent hip-hop simply called… First.  We printed it using silver inks on black paper and it included collaborations with people such as the Antipop Consortium, Saul Williams, or the Scratch Perverts. It also gave us the first connections with the media industry. The interest for those new forms of cultures was really new in France at this time, and most of the people who run 'trendy' magazines today are in fact friends I met during this period. We all started at the same time, with a lot of enthusiasm and motivation, even if we weren’t sure if the interest from the rest of the population would be there. The most prolific meeting was with Pierre Henny, the Editor-in-chief of a magazine called Kink. He offered me to take the art direction of his publication and became my partner in crime until today.
Next year me and Delarocca went in New York where -by pretending we were journalists (!!)- we hooked up and interviewed tons of peoples involved in all kind of underground and/or street cultures (peeps from Definitive Jux, Zoo York, Wordsound, Stay Free, etc.). Back in France we realized that we brought back such a quantity of material that it would have been a shame not to do anything serious with it. So, we started working hard, trying to push all those informations and influences together, doing millions of new illustrations, and of course trying to find some money to finance the project. One year later, in 2002, we finally printed a very nice graphic design book called NYC Rules!. We included all those sort of features we used to see in the German publications like the use of different stock of paper, additional fluo and metallic inks, which was pretty undone in France at this moment. I guess it’s one of the reasons why it was kind of really applauded here in France, and brought both of us to a bigger level.
Few times later, Pierre and me stopped Kink to take the direction of another 'street cultures' magazine called BPM: a new publisher, a move to Paris, and a whole new experience. Beside that, my work as an illustrator was still growing up with more and more publications, in all types of books and magazines, every months. So I started to search an agent and finally found Lezilus, which I guess is the best one in France.
When we stopped BPM one year later I started working for the fashion magazine WAD as an art associate. It was a cool job too, as WAD really have an international audience, but since my illustration was taking more and more of my time, I finally decided in 2005 to stop all the press stuff to focus on my freelance work. This also would give me the opportunity to live wherever I wanted, as long as I had a laptop and an access to internet.

What are the ingredients to become successful in design?
You have of course to be really dedicated in what you do, and you have to know that trying to make your passion your work doesn’t come without any sacrifice. Most of the time it means few money, periods with no personal life, plus you never have any idea of what your future is going to look like. This is the minimum. But what most of the designers seems to forget is that even before being a good creative you have to be professional. It may sounds obvious, but I swear that even after all those years spent in the industry I’m still amazed by the general lack of professionalism. So, respecting the briefs, the formats, the deadlines, is a good way to become successful. Once people know they can rely to you, they won’t hesitate to call you back and spread your name around.
Then you have to be confident. From my personal experience, I know that as long as you consider something as impossible or unreachable, there are few chances you will achieve it. So, when you face a closed door, just kick it till you blow it up.

How do you differentiate yourself in this industry?
I try to stay really open to everything new, from music to fashion to art, so there is always something fresh I can incorporate in my work. I blend hand illustrations, graffiti, vector & typography seamlessly. The combination of techniques comes naturally to me, as they are all an expression of my different experiences and influences. I kept some habits from my graffiti period, like using shiny and simple colors, and I’m still into typography techniques too, because it‘s a good way to bring another level of readability to certain pictures. The most important is that I definitively love the clean approach that allows the use of computers’ (vector) programs.
But I guess this point of view is not specific to me. We are a whole generation who grew with a very strong and eclectic visual environment. As children we had the pixels and the flashy colors of our 8bits videogames. As teenagers, the graffiti, the skateboard, the hip-hop and the punk industries made big impressions on us. Today, everywhere you put your eyes you see illustrations, from ad-billboards to stickers, passing by clothing logos, website designs or simple tags. It seems to be exponential. For me it’s pretty cool, cause the huge difference with the other generations is that almost everybody in Europe can now buy a computer, start to mix all those subconscious influences, and make it his way. Design is everywhere and everybody could be a designer. Just do it!
Considering that it may be hard for me to say exactly how I differentiate myself. It could be because I’m constantly moving, geographically, intellectually, and professionally, so I prevent myself from creative suffocation.

Where is your hometown, and do you travel often?
Hard question… Unfortunately I’m not really sure about where is my hometown anymore. I used to live in Stalingrad, a ghetto kind of hood in the north center of Paris. When left WAD magazine in mid 2005 to start my 100% freelance activity, I moved to Brazil where I spent the rest of the year. I love this country, the language, the people, the culture, and I plan to go back there sometimes soon. Anyway, after a quick come back to Paris where (from what I saw) nothing had really changed during this interval, I thought that keeping traveling was the best option for me. So I moved to Argentina. I lived and had great time in Buenos Aires until November last year. Living in such a kind of countries also allow me to stay far from the financial day-to-day pressure, as unfortunately this part of the world live in an economic level way inferior to ours. In my point of view money is the most efficient political weapon since we all live in a liberal world, so I try to pay attention to the manner I earn it, and where and how I spend it. Nobody will get exploited by my work, including me. It may sound a bit hippy (please tell me it’s not the case!), but I think that South America deserves and needs more my money than Europe does.
I have this love and hate relationship with France. After World War 2, our parent generation was born in this gigantic baby boom. We all remember when they fought the oppressive and retrograde government when they were teenagers, with May 68 and everything. But what everybody seems to forget is what happened next. Then those 'revolutionaries' totally killed the next generation, being even more greedy and conservative than their own parents. If you were born in France in the 80’s, there is few chances you could get respect and money from what you do before you’re 40, and this is largely due to the fact that our genitors don’t want to share any of their achievements. You just have to look at the French politic of today, with the worst reactionary and repressive leader ever, mostly celebrated by all of them, to understand why I don’t want to come back in this country anymore. I hate what France is becoming; I hate the values the people like our president Sarkozy is fighting for. They all make me feel sick and sad. My future has nothing to do with moral, religion, order, and respect. My whole life incarnates the exact opposite of all that crapiness. Hopefully, in last November my old time friend Pierre Henny gave me a buzz, and proposed me to take the Art Direction of the one and only Australian and New Zealander big magazine about street cultures (Acclaim magazine). So I moved from Buenos Aires to Sydney where I still work and live. However, as I said before, I plan to go back to Brazil pretty soon, probably before the end of the year.

Were you ever afraid of not being able to survive in this industry?
Before being able to live from my art, I’ve done all the worth jobs you could imagine. I used to be on a back of a truck to collect garbage, to clean the dodgy toilets in an airport, to handle the luggages for people that wouldn’t even notice my existence, etc. I mean it was not temporary jobs, it was my real life. So when I started to be able to survive from graphic design, I made this promise to myself that there was no way I could go back to this, and I guess that’s why I took it so seriously. I also never let my choices being controlled by fear, so even if I never had any clue if I would one day survive from my stuff, I always kept pushing, no matter the consequences, because I knew that the professional consequences couldn’t be worst than what I’ve been through. Moreover, I’m not really materialistic, and I don’t have many needs. As long as I can buy Ramen Noodles, it’s all right for me ;-) My laptop is my only necessary possession. Hopefully I’m lucky enough to have cool brands and companies who gave me free clothes, music, and invitations for parties throughout all the past years.

We usually see designers living inside their works; imparting emotions to every piece. What is your approach to your design?
From the beginning my motto was to do my passion my life, and my life my passion. Considering that, design is an essential part of me, but it’s not all I am. For the rest, I do symbolically separate my work as an illustrator from the rest of my life by using this nickname Mega. Mega is the megalomaniac part of me, it’s another me, it’s a play, it’s a game (me-ga > ga-me), Mega is this pretentious bastard, rude and uneducated, who do not know what doubt means. I’m more into books and introspection. To tell you a secret I wish I were a novelist more than a graphic designer. As it’s not the case, I try to bring some of my obsessions and manias to my man Mega, so he could incorporate it under the surface of something more general, and funkier.

What has been the biggest sacrifice to you?
By traveling constantly I had to let my family and friends behind me, even if I try my best to stay in touch with them. My biggest sacrifice was a future with a girl I loved, but for some irrational reasons, I assume we both scarified this future. Sometimes I’m tired of booty calls and would be keen to build something serious with a girl, but in fact I guess I’m not ready for it. Whatever my choices and sacrifices could have been, I don’t have not even the beginning of a regret today.

How do you past your time when you‚re not at your work?
I listen to music! To be honest, it’s not totally separated from my work, as music inspired me in various way. From old-time funky stuff, afrobeat, soul classics, to underground hip-hop joints, I’m really into it. There is a similar approach in doing illustration and music. In term of process and state of mind, illustrators and producers are like fraternal twins. Alone behind your computer, you have to work hours and hours to establish a structure, that you have to complete by picking effects and samples in your personal bank. Then, years after years, productions after productions, you start to build your own style, with its own 'color' that makes it identifiable. At this point, people start to pay attention to your work and start to feature you in their projects. Then, little by little, you just try to conquer the world!
I also deeply love to read. My tastes go from 19th century classics (Proust, Dostoïevsky, Barbey d’Aurevilly, Stendhal, Tolstoi, etc.) to today’s dudes like Harry Crews, Will Self, Bukowski, Hubert Selby, or polar masters like Chester Himes or Pelecanos. Reading talented people satisfy a bit the frustrated writer who lives inside me.
A large part of my free time is allowed to get drunk with my friends, as well as getting laid with as many brunettes as possible, in all of the most unexpected places and times. Girls, I love you!

How did design become a piece of you?
Hmm. I guess I answered before, no?

What are you currently working on?
Too many stuff! First I’m still doing the Art Direction for this magazine Acclaim and it takes a lot of my time. Then I just started working for an Australian brand, doing all-over pattern for hoodies and that kind of shit. I also work for Nori21, a French brand dedicated to cross golf (those peoples who practice golf in an urban environment). I as well do some designs for a German street wear brand called Faith21. Damn, it make me realize that I work for two separated brands having a '21' in their name, and that is really really weird! I’m now launching my first personal series of t-shirts as well as an online store. I just did a series of 3 skateboards for No Comply and another deck with Illicit skateboard for my magazine Acclaim. I’ve just started to do some works for Complex, a magazine I love. I’ll also be featured in some upcoming graphic design books in both Europe and USA. And, oh yes, I may start to work on a really fun project, as people asked me last week to work on some designs for a Chihuahua streetwear brand. Yes, like doing cool stuff for dog clothes. I think sometimes my job is just hilarious!

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