 So our first beaker will be Philippe Appelwha, and he will be followed by the amazing Georgie Stout and Then we'll have a little conversation and then go get toasted upstairs So come on up. Yeah, it's all yours. Thank you It's working here. Okay All right. Good evening and thank you for the invitation I'm so happy to be back at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and to present you some of my work Let's try to fix it What I wanted to tell you before we start the presentation is that I collect a series of Body of work that I've done posters, logo ties, motion graphic pieces and I wanted to show you also the design process I'm going through, you know, I don't want you to show only the final result But also how everything is made and developed step by step I'm sorry. I'm sitting because I can see the screen better. I hope you don't mind There's no more Thank you. Thank you. Thank you I'm working a lot with typography and I like design Typography in a very expressive way meaning that for instance what you see on the screen there are a series of Experimental type faces that have been designed over the years Let's start with a very recent work This is a scarf. Actually, it's not a poster. It's a scarf and it was made for Hermès, the brand the luxurious brand that was commissioned to design this scarf and The theme was about to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roland Barthes Roland Barthes was a French philosopher who explored semiotic and social and design theory and I was asked to design the scarf on the books called the lover discourse fragment and what I saw I Look at the way the book is composed And you see that Roland Barthes paid attention a lot about the the layout of his text Meaning that it isn't the this text doesn't start from the first page to the end But there's also it's completely fragmented. You have some empty spaces between the Paragraphers and what I decided to do is to silhouette it all of them, you know making them very graphic and by that I Did the old book meaning that I did Put it the book altogether all the pages next to each other and it created Completely pattern the thing also that I wanted to do was to reverse the The black to the whites that mean that the end that that's what it gives on on the on the textile on the textile also the if I went to this Ideas is because Roland Barthes Worked a lot but it works a lot about the structural is and this Reveal the structure of the book itself it's like the the thumbnails on the railroad of the FF is a say from the front cover to the back cover and also when you design a scarf It's very different than designing a poster because it's two side and at the beginning I wanted to do something with typography, but I realized that it would be Problematic because on the other side, I mean typography can be readable so this is a very brand-new work and It revealed also the way I like to to work with abstract shapes Using also the not only the positive shape But this is the negative shape the silence of it to try to reveal something from the grid system Which are something that I learned actually during my studies and all the Internship that I did in the Netherlands because I'm really swallow all the Dutch design in the way I'm working. I Shoot that image that doesn't have anything to do with graphic, but it was a very emblematic images in the 1989 in China at Beijing during the you know the Demonstration there and I use that because I was asked to design a poster for a literature festival in Exemple Vance, which is the city in the south of France and on in 2012 the theme was Noises of the world which means that they invited four or five riders who are Activists political activism In their country from China from the Middle East from the east of Europe and each of them try to fight for Equal justice and they press weight hurts so in French It's called we do more which means noise of the world and I try to combine a typography and matter and drawings just by Fingerprints and I like to work like that, you know to mixed technique I think if you want to bring something an emotional dimension in a poster it's interesting to not to froze yourself with the technology with the computer but really to bring something that you can do with hands with your hands and the elongation of each letters bring a kind of dialogue with all of them and Show direction and at the end. That's the final poster. I wanted to also to find the right color I pay attention to the color at the end of the the old process for me color become comes at the end I always think in black and white first and then the color the light blue is the color of hope It's the color of the sky. It's also the color of a big ocean and then you see the letters. They're like island and The fact that there you have these fingerprints is also to talk about the time passing This is another sketch For a poster is called vivo in tipo and it was a poster I designed for an exhibition of my own work the title which I found was means live with typography to live with typography to be completely Inspire I mean immersed, you know in typography and I try to Design the letters by the accumulation of punctuation if I blow up if I you see the blow you have the feeling of transparency and On texture on weaving and that's something also that I like to do with my work It's trying to find something that it looks like there's a 3d effect. There's a something In the printed matter that is not flat anymore I'm doing a lot as I explained it to you with experimental typography. This is done for theater in the south of France in Toulouse and I Just play with this very abstract shape and you see I use the the primary colors and Why I did that because on stage when you mix them, you know, you create white White light, you know the light of Purely white is created by the mix of primary color So to overlap some letters you have some white in surface and it tells about the theater Atmosphere each year's it's a result of experimentation for instance That was the year after so those posters are made to announce the season each time and this is a kind of pointy isn't made with typography and Just the dots are next to each other Some part of them are blackout and by turning them it creates later you can read it from distance That's another thing. Also. I like to do is to play with the way you see the work from a distance and from very nearby This is the most recent one and This is perhaps more a Classica will tell by the fact that I didn't design the typeface myself But I wanted to to mix them all together to try to to fill the space of the poster as much as I can without losing the readability and also try to limit myself with the number of colors and Make something that is an alternation it alternates each color You know are next to each other and they complete to and they just play and they became at the end a kind of detail of a big weaving again, you know, I Like movement to play movement with into the topography before I'm talking about this image I wanted to tell you that with the new technology What is fabulous is that you can really bring movement in in ladders By essence later or not made to to be moved, but I think it's it's a great Opportunity that we have in our time, you know to to bring motion to meet with topography I would show you some other example. Let me talk about another poster, which is on view upstairs on the second floor it was designed for a Theater in Paris called a chateau lay and it was at the occasion to presented the 1946 American opera called streets in by court vile the story depict the life in the Lower East side and When I'm starting to design poster I'm always looking for, you know, some documentation So I try to find some images of what is the Lower East side and I knew that the on stage There will be something that we produce that You know your urban landscape and I try you know to focus on this on the steps that you have on in front of each building of the tenements and Immediately as I thought to myself well, perhaps I can you know play with the ladders and try to do something You know to to do something with the step But I didn't know what exactly and when you do things like this on the computer Even if it looks quite interesting, it's very dry and very mechanical It doesn't really tell so much about the story itself and I wanted to have something a little bit more dramatic So what I did I start to think about using the two words and unfolded several time to recreate the steps in 3d and When I did that on a computer was interesting but not strong enough because I thought once again You have the limit of the technology and even if you can find if you can do everything you want You lose perhaps what I call the image emotional dimension that I'm looking for in every work that I'm trying to do So that's the reason why I went to the old technique and doing it by hand This are laser print which have been you know paste and on on a form core and fold it and then by Doing several photos different shoot and put it on the computer and then you go back and forth You know by the very traditional technique to the with the new tools Photoshop, so I I was able you know to retouch the the photo and to include it in the old Composition and then it's not only the the step that you can see of the tenement But also the way that the typography is placed reveal all the detail of this Architecture meaning of the facade meaning the bricks the pediments the the doors the windows the lintels and It plays also with the space of the poster. I'm really paying attention about proportion of the space And that's what you will see on those sketches of a poster I designed for the the institutional navigable waterways of French who had organized an exhibition of Model of antique barges instead to reproduce the barges I saw that I can reveal them just with the typography by the elongation by of the The typography itself. That's the final posture. You see that the type Elongated segment create the images of the barges with their reflection in the water and I'm paying also a lot of attention to control the proportion that the empty space everything has a Clearly space for it to not place just by random. It's very in control at the end This is the corporate identity I did for that Institution and of course what I wanted to try to do was to To reveal the the light Reflection upon the water and the movement of the water and when I was talking to you about the grid system You can see here. There's only two color I mean, it's light blue black and the white the white become active But let's go back to the idea of the grid system. You see that the light blue has only three columns The black is four columns and the white is five columns So there's a reason that is created step by step and by overlapping them once again you create a kind of 3d effect It's like there's a death in in the poster This is something different it's a poster that I've designed almost 10 years ago But I still very much like it because once again it was about Experimental typography to do type only by using slashes. It was a poster about for an exhibition About the art and the creation and the the history of a region in France called a Lorraine Which is located on the northeast of the country and it's well known for the textile production And I was very much inspired by by by the fact that we've just a Simple slouch I can repeat it and make an accumulation and work with the spacing of it the space and Create once again the feeling of movement. I use it again for a poster of my of an exhibition I had in Ukraine few years ago and because it was a great source of Work for instance, you see those motion graphic pieces. I don't know if they work. They don't Don't know what doesn't matter normally to move but anyway, so you can see that the old alphabet have been Created was created It's coming. Okay Just take times just for you to know and I Found a lot of my inspiration by looking at the painting as you probably saw before for instance But also in performing art and that's something I wanted to tell you why you watch this. I Learned a lot by watching Dance performances Contemporary dance especially, you know from America. I mean I had the chance to to see the very young the performances by Alvin E. Colise and Cunningham and Matagram all these people really inspire me so much and still are This is something completely different and you can't really see on the screen, but there is a series of book cover It's a review called Afri Contrapo and Contemporary Africa and the logo type has been what was the occasion to design a specific typeface Completely abstract again completely experimental and I use it, you know also for the the the pages that announce every chapter and once again, it was the idea of you bring in the movement by Taking away part of the letters I mean they're just fading away and you can see there's a progression of it and that's one of the poster which was designed for for that review and for that, I mean When I was talking to you about inspiration that I look a lot about all this artifact Which are made in Africa and that's really the way I went to find the idea I'm talking again to the same literature festival in Ex-en Provence And this is really the last poster of design and because it's going to happen in the next month And it's the homage to Swedish writers called Henrik Mankel who is very well known from the crime novels and The title of it is from the snow to the sand these are sketches and Why that because he's living part-time in Sweden and in Mozambique and he said I have a foot in the snow and I have a foot in The sand so just with typography This is the poster you and it's very hard to see on the screen, but it's a low-raise and they use the bitmap texture and What I try again to express instead to show a landscape, you know of stuff a desert of Snow of something I think that only with typography and with very small amount of color you can express The the thing typography has a lot of meaning If you cut part of the letters if you play with with them in the space, so you you give life to them You you you increase the meaning of them the sense and the concept also of course And once again here you see how much I care about the proportion and how things are placed in The surface of the page. This is the last logo. I designed them at the very most recent logo type a F a it's for the words a meblement, which means furnishing and F for French French And this is a union that promotes the All what has what all what is related to French furnishing not only the distributor, but also the manufacturers and I'll try to design two very abstract letters This is the the logo with the Title of it, which is made in Avenue, but I made some very few changes for instance You know the sea of Francais, which is completely redesigned But I tried to make it really playful The idea was to to abstract the letters and to make them look like if they are furniture view from above that you can move in a space and it's a play of very simple shapes and You can see on this motion graphic pieces how the logo can even be expanded It's like if you push a furniture next to the wall in the room and in another another room And then you play with the positive and the negative and it's become very playful Attractive and very eye-catching also and that's what we are looking for when we design corporate identity this is Something very different very abstract and I was extremely surprised when I got the commission by Hermès again to design the number for swatch And for watch not false watch for watch Well, I mean, I know that recently they did something with the Apple watch. I don't know if you heard about it But I mean there's a big thing anyway, so Hermès commissioned me to design the numbers and I tried to to make them very abstract again on why that and very fine because They told me that the watch is going to to be very very fine very very Flat so I tried only with one line to design all the numbers and you have to keep in mind that The watch is a very very small object, so it has to be really in very very tiny Surface you see it in really big on the screen, but in fact, it's a very small one it's the most recent watch for by Hermès and It's called slim slim by Hermès slim because everything is so refined It brings me to some posture I designed for for exhibition ahead recently at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, which is almost like the the brother and the sister of this museum here and the the exhibition called tiporama and this is The posture you it reveal how the letter were made by first segment and it's a poster typefaces that I designed myself and at the occasion the The museum published in association with Thames and Hudson a very big book which is still available a thing in the English version version and Just to you the year after there was another exhibition in excellent Provence We call it tipo appelloy and I and I didn't find the title of it They wanted me to use my name, which is not that easy it of course every every creative people have an ego and I do have like Everyone but I must tell you that it's not easy to use my own name certain such a bigger Scale but I start to think about it and typo. It's the the abbreviation of that means this means type It's typo for typography and I always try to use what the random give me you know by counting the letters and trying to find the right combination that we feel something like if it was made for it and It's just happened that you know I found a way to cross the two words and to reveal this the sorrow of what I'm looking for when I'm doing every day and that's an image of the exhibition we Design the poster where a floating in the air in the middle of a huge room and You see them on both sides and here you see some posters that have shown you for instance the Vivo in tipo poster and crossing the line was made for Festival here in New York, which is organized and by the French Institute and Now I'm preparing the next exhibition. I'm very lucky and spoiled and it's going to happen in the state Museum is start next year and it's called using type and this is the poster of it and That's what up I try to to go as fast as I can but then you can see the motion graphic pieces that we do for the exhibition if you have questions later I can answer you. Thank you