The collaborations with magazines - how do they work? Are they a regular collaboration, or one-time pieces? 

I had several collaborations in the past with BE magazine, Glamour Spain and this year with Votre Beauté magazine. But most of the time it’s a one-time piece. 

I would love to know more about the work you did for fragrance brands. How does it work?

For Rochas, I had a detailed brief with the template of the packaging, the color theme. The perfume ‘Cascades de Rochas’ was about Iris so I had to illustrate those flowers in different techniques and also the egery of the brand, Olivia Palermo. The range of perfumes was composed of several fragrances but I just made a test for ‘Songe d’Iris’. Unfortunately the test wasn’t accepted by the client at the final step but it was a very interesting experience. It’s part of the game to work in competition with other illustrators and photographs for big projects like this.

I notice you have a great personal brand (and not many artists do). You use Ëlodie as your name (very catchy and easy to remember) and your website is very well done. Could you share a little bit about how you worked to build your image? 

Thank you. Yes, I realized how it’s important to build a solid styled brand to be recognizable among the many illustrators. It’s very time consuming, but for me it’s not a problem because I love that!

Especially I love graphic design and coding for my website, sometimes it changes from drawing and avoids routine! :) I learned to do this in school so it’s nice to be able to use this knowledge in my job too. As I said it takes a lot of time to manage all the branding especially since I spent several weeks recently to build a new responsive website (a friend of mine was very helpful when I was stuck) and re-design my blog and shop, so now I find useful to split my day in 2 parts. In the morning I work on my brand: coding for my sites, designing new business cards, taking pictures of my drawings to promote on social networks, sending newsletters (those tasks demand more concentration) and in the afternoon I mostly draw or colorize a new illustration in Photoshop.

In the beginning I used the pseudo Miss Firefly and then Luciole art (ahah now I found those pseudos so childish!). Then I changed for Ëlodie which is more simple because it’s my real name, except I added the umlauts on the Ë to make a difference between my brand and me. 

I always have new ideas for promotion so I use to write down all of them in a little notebook: On the left page I write down ideas about ‘BRANDING’ (ideas of promotion, modification on my website, blog…) and on the right page I write my ‘WORKS’ ideas (project for exhibition, collaborations). Unfortunately the pages are filling too fast and I’m not able to do all of these tasks ahah!

You are working with two agents who represent you. Do you find this necessary, for an illustrator? How is that helping you?

Yes. My agent is Colagene, they represent me in Europe, Canada and United States. I also have an agent in Australia, The Drawing Arm. I think it’s very necessary to have an agent if you plan to work in advertising. Most of the big projects are held by advertising agencies who prefer working with an agent who is able to propose several styles of illustration rather that only one illustrator with a particular style. Even if an artistic director likes your work, it doesn’t mean that he will make you work right now, because your style must fit with the brief of his client.

A little bit about the business side of things :) Many artists have a problem when it comes to setting a value for their work. How did you learn how much to quote for your illustration projects?

Ahah that’s a tricky part. I forgot to mention that my agent will do all the work of discussing and quoting with the client, which is very helpful too.

I can only tell you about Fashion illustration in edition and advertising which is very different from child books, for example. The cost of an illustration is separated in two parts : the cost of production: Depending on how much time you spend on it, 400 - 500 euros for a A5 and 800 - 1000 euros for a A4 etc…

The cost of the rights: That’s the difficult part to quote because it depends on how your illustration will be used: which mediums? If magazines, how many; internet, TV, which territories? For how long etc… The rights of an illustration always belong to the illustrator. When you sell the rights of your illustration for a specific time, area… it’s exactly like a renting, so it’s very important to discuss with your client to know exactly how he wants to use it.

There is an online tool called Calkulator that might be helpful. 

They say that no matter how successful you are, you always find new things to learn, new challenges. What is the latest major thing you learned?

I realize day after day, more and more, that working all by myself at home doesn’t mean I work alone. I have several social pages and I receive a lot of comments and emails every day. They are so encouraging and very helpful especially when I have some doubts about my work, and when I feel guilty not to be able to do all the tasks I wrote down in my little book :)

I try to answer all of them with honesty, because I think it’s also very important to show the human side of my brand/job, which is why I plan to share more pictures of myself on my websites soon and maybe videos, I’ll see ! :)

Who is behind this project, Pattern Library, who are you guys?

We are two friends passionate about the internet! Tim Holman is a creative developer working for Wieden+Kennedy in NYC and I'm a Graphic Designer working for Fantasy Interactive in San Francisco. We have a long story of side projects on our back. Tim came up with some great ideas like The Useless Web and many other experiments you can check on his website. I love doing side projects as well so we try to collaborate as much as possible. Before The Pattern Library we did Meet the Ipsums, an ongoing archive or Ipsums.

How did you get the idea for starting this project?

The Pattern Library was the result of many brainstorm sessions and tests for couple of months. We debated and discussed many ideas and started the project as a typographic showcase and it evolved towards a showcase of patterns created by designers for designers. It's our first collaborative project and we are overwhelmed by the participation so far.

How did you get the designers to submit their patterns?

We initially reached out to a core group of designers whose work we admire and follow and with that initial base it quickly expanded to many others. 

You are an American freelance illustrator based in Paris. Why Paris?

I’m originally from Illinois, but for college and work I’ve moved fairly regularly since then, with stops in Chicago, Boston, Phoenix, London and New York. My wife is French, so after a couple very fun but hectic years in Manhattan we decided life in France made more sense for the long term.


How long have you been living in Paris?

I moved here last year, so it has been an interesting 6 months of acclimation, to say the least! Coming from New York it feels much more like a big village, but with a tremendous cultural and arts scene. I’ve always wanted to live in Paris, so I’m enjoying making an illustrated journal of my first year here. New journal sketches turn up on my blog from time to time, and I like how they are beginning to track the seasons in Paris.

What is it like to be a freelance artist, for you? What opportunities are there?

The industry these days is so globally connected that I still work with many of the same clients from the US. My agent, Erika Groeschel is based in New York, and I’m now getting to know the European market better through research and events in Paris. As a freelancer, I find that projects can vary widely from one to the next – ranging from US comic book publishers to French start-up companies. In a way that’s what keeps this industry so interesting, each week can bring a very different design problem to approach.  


Has studying architecture influenced/helped your illustration in any way?

Absolutely. I have almost ten years of experience as a design architect - moonlighting as an illustrator along the way because I love drawing all sorts of things, not just buildings! I was fortunate to work for innovative firms like Foster + Partners in London and New York, where the design philosophy stressed the importance of each project’s underlying concept. The same thinking applies to visual arts like illustration – the strength of the artwork rests on a strong fundamental idea. Architecture has also helped me tremendously in terms of communication. Design – be it a building or layouts for a magazine – can be a very subjective and personal, so clearly communicating the design choices one makes is critical.

You create powerful illustrations, with satirical message. How do you get your inspiration?

Observation through personal experience and travel are important. I’m always taking photos, sketching and recording different colour combinations to see if they can come through later in my work. I have folders of sketch ideas, textures and colours that are important sources of inspiration when starting a new project.  I’m also an avid current events follower, so I’m always checking news and opinion sites on the web – I think there is tremendous inspiration to draw on from contemporary culture and world events alone.

The illustrations on your website - are those for commissions, or personal projects?

My website (and the associated work on Facebook, Behance and Tumblr) is a mix of commissions and personal projects. I like presenting personal work alongside commissions because it shows the topics I naturally gravitate towards and tracks my development as an illustrator. I feel both aspects are important to help art directors to get a sense of my abilities and approach.

How do you manage to express a concept so well? Is it something that comes to you effortlessly (sometimes, at least), or do you work on each concept and go through various different concepts before deciding on a final one?

I wish the concepts all came effortlessly! Some ideas for projects do come easier than others. Others are more challenging, but can often end up being more rewarding as a result.  A recent commission for Variety was one that clicked nicely. The art director, Cheyne Gateley, had a great initial idea and my concept sketches really got the ball rolling. We had the usual back and forth on details, but the overall piece gelled very quickly.

A more challenging commission was a recent poster commission I completed for film director Ben Wagner (for the 10^th anniversary re-release of his film ‘Southbounders’). Working with some film stills from the movie, I tried a number of different layouts and ideas. Ben also had suggestions and very soon there were simply too many ideas competing for attention on the poster. At that point we realized we needed to take a step back and work via a process of reduction to develop a singular, powerful image for the poster. We are both very happy with the result, I think in no small part due to the hoops we went through to get there!

This is something that happens very often when trying to come up with one perfect concept: you get lost in too many possible approaches. Do you have any tips on how to “take a step back” and reduce everything to one idea? Especially when this is a team work, so it’s not just you?

Yes, I think when a large number of creatives are involved, there can sometimes become too many options in play. The key is to generate consensus on the strongest idea and move forward on that – though I know from experience that’s easier said than done. When I think a concept is looking watered down, I often try quick ways to really draw down on the message in the image – that can include simple tricks like increasing the scale of certain elements or cropping the image differently.

What technique do you use in your work?

The artwork is usually done with a combination of both traditional and digital techniques – starting with hand drawn concept sketches followed by tighter inks. Once the client and I are happy with the overall direction of the artwork, I take it into the computer to complement with line work with colouring, brushes and textures. I use a Wacom tablet for some of the digital work but still like to start everything with a pen and paper.

How long do you usually spend on a project (like the poster commission for Southbounders, for example)? From beginning to end?

It certainly varies on the number of illustrations involved and the complexity of the artwork. ‘Southbounders’ had a back and forth discussion going with the client for about ten days along with a series of progress sketches. The actual inking on the final piece was done in several hours.

What would you say to someone who wants to become better at illustration? Any tips, advice, resources you could share?

Practice makes improvement... I suppose that advice follows the famous 10,000 hour rule.  Don’t underestimate what you can learn from personal work - I find that those personal studies can really open up a lot of new techniques and ideas. I also try to arrange my personal work around certain themes so there is a coherent focus to it. You aren’t sweating a deadline or worrying about how an art director will respond, so it’s a great opportunity to relax and follow your intuitive design moves.

A fellow illustrator saw their post and contacted Cristiano Siqueira to let him know that his work had been used without permission. Siqueira says he hadn’t been approached for permission request at any moment and that he would have been happy to negotiate the use of the illustration, had he been asked first.

"I think it's such an amateurish attitude from the page management, since they are representing a global brand”, says the artist who, as soon as seeing Nestea’s Facebook post, left a comment to inform them that they don’t have authorisation to use his illustration.

Up until this moment, there has been no reply from Nestle Venezuela, although (surprise, surprise) the status has been erased, in the meantime. 

How did you start working in this field? What was your first job?

I was always interested in how things look. I remember at school the art and the design classes were pretty much the only classes that captured my attention. I soon loved the design process, and became inspired to create nice, or clever, or useable things from nothing. It’s such an exciting thing to do – to create something from nothing or to turn a little idea or a thought in your head into something real that people react to. 

I studied Art and Design at Chesterfield College (in England) and whilst studying, I obviously had to pay my way, so I went out and got a series of jobs outside the creative world, i.e. I worked in factories, I delivered things, I washed cars, I worked in restaurants etc, etc. These jobs, albeit weren’t in the creative realm, did help me a lot by installing a sense of work ethic and snapshot of what life could be like without design in my life. Although I had fun in all those jobs, and met some great people, of whom are still friends today - I wanted to be creating, and make things. Looking back today, those jobs make me appreciate that I’m the luckiest man in the world to be working in a job that is genuinely enjoyable and like a hobby. My first paid design job was self initiated, once I felt confident that my portfolio was good enough (and I worked hard on my portfolio), I went out and got some freelance clients that were in need of some design help. I created logos, websites, advertising pieces etc, etc.   

You’ve been a designer for 7 years now and you have probably evolved so much since you started. What were the most obvious mistakes you made, throughout this time, on the projects you’ve worked on?

I’m scratching my head, thinking long and hard about what major mistake I have made in the past 7 years, and there isn’t a single big mistake that jumps out at me, I’m pretty happy with my path that leads to where I am now. My design skills have taken me from Derby in England, to San Francisco in California (via London, New York and Buenos Aires).

I guess we all make little mistakes and learn from them. I once promised a client unlimited design revs, that was a mistake - the client chopped and changed his mind continuously, and there was nothing that I could do about it, I had to stick to my word. Now if I have a freelance client, I don't offer unlimited design revs.

I guess I haven't networked as much as I probably should or could have - however that isn't my passion - creating emotion-provoking work is; I realise that the networking part is important, as you need to get your work seen, however that’s the boring part of the job in my mind. It feels very much like administration. I’m happiest when I am knees-deep in design, listening to the radio whilst creating stuff. I do try to network a bit more now, and get my work seen and talked about, and it can be highly rewarding when you get nice compliments about your work.

You have lived in London, Buenos Aires, New York city and now San Francisco. Where did you like it better and why? Would you say that the opportunities, in general, differ a lot from one place to the other (or continent, for that matter)?

I’ve always enjoyed travelling and seeing new places. I do believe that travelling experience and getting out there and tasting and trying new stuff can influence your creative work, as well as your personality. I’ve really enjoyed all the places that I have worked, my portfolio has certainly benefitted from me geting out there and winning clients from all over the world.

In London I was just getting started, I moved down there from my home town city of Derby. I loved the potential opportunity that was everywhere in London. It has an exciting design scene with almost all of the worlds best agencies having offices here in London.

New York City was spectacularly exciting - The advertising world really inspires me. I’m a huge fan of guerilla advertising! I love it! I was interning at MSA Advertising where I presented a creative guerilla advertising idea for one of their clients - that was a real buzz. There’s no better place to work in the field of advertising than in New York City - I’d one day like to return there.

Buenos Aires is an amazing place, full of culture, interesting things and good people. At first it was a challenge working as a designer there, as I had to learn Spanish (which I later did) and I had to learn how to present my ideas, thoughts and opinions clearly and insightfully in a foreign language. That was a big hurdle to jump, however I did it and I am glad I did. There are some extremely talented designers and illustrators in Argentina. Gustavo Zambelli and Carla Corrales are great new illustrators.  

And most recently I have been working in San Francisco and I love it! There are an amazing amount of great opportunities for designs, illustrators and particularly UX / UI designers. Its very competitive, but there’s definitely a lot of tech startups looking for talented designers. It’s exciting time in San Francisco and its an honour to be a part of it.

I’ve seen some of your logo design projects and simply loved the hand lettering you did. Dippy Dippy Egg is my favorite. How did you go about that one? What were the steps you followed?

The Dippy Dippy Egg project was fun! I had great clients for that project. After we agreed on a brief, and set some guidelines, and had long conversations about the brands short term and long term future, they just let me get on with it.

The clients wanted to create a quirky, young and fun looking brand, and obviously the look and feel of the logo would visually drive that message.

I knew that the typography would play a major part in creating a quirky brand, so I created lettering that would compliment the quirky, young and fun feel that we set out to achieve. It was a process of experimentation and elimination before refining the details. For example I soon eliminated the idea of using serifs, as I felt they wouldn’t help the logo look fun and quirky. I also disregarded (after experimentation) the idea of creating typography that would have hard edges, as an egg itself has no hard edges, so why should ‘Dippy Dippy Egg’s’ typography? I also wanted the logo to have personality, so I opted to join up the letters. It was also important for the logo to feel confident and strong, as well as legible at smaller sizes – so I made the typography stroke thick and filling.

I placed the typography in the egg shape, to add further clarity on what the clients business does. I experimented with a series of different colours before landing on magenta – this colour stuck because it had a vibrant and energetic feel, it stands out and backs up the fun and quirky feel that we set out to create. I also created a version of the logo without the egg encompassing the typography. I think that it is important when designing logos that they have the flexibility to have a secondary mark what holds the same feel and values of the main mark, and the typography only secondary logo help achieve this.

I refined and tweaked and perfected both logos and placed them in a number of different real life scenarios to make sure that both logos could be used seamlessly in a number of different situations and on a number of different medias.

How much typography knowledge do you need to have, in order to create a hand lettering logo? (I’m asking because I’m looking into learning this, myself) :)

You know what? I didn't have a lot of hand rendered typography experience. I still don’t. It’s something I am keen to work on more. There are some great, great, great artists / designers that can create beautiful hand lettering and it is a proper skill, it is an artform and I am very envious of them. I imagine that they have put in hours and hours and hours of practice to perfect this admirable skill. People like Jessica Hische are leaders in this field.

When creating visual identities, what are the key steps you need to make sure you take, in order to do the best possible job? (including pitching for such a project).

I think that a key step is to know the company inside out. What it stands for, what it’s ‘personality’ is, what it aspires to be, who the target audience are, what aspirations the target audience have. You must spend time with the business owners or managers to ensure that you create and both agree on an excellent creative brief. (If there’s anything unclear in the creative brief, you must ask questions until everything is crystal clear). I think that this is your first step.

After you have a solid, understandable and inspiring creative brief, research is your friend. Research the audience, research the local area where the business is, research the competitors and research the industry. Look for what works well, and also pinpoint what isn't working well and how you can change that. Interview employees, interview potential clients, interview locals. Remember to record your findings as you will one day have to present your research to your client.

Another important step, which is often scandalously overlooked, is think about the future of this brand. Remember, when creating visual identities for your client, think not only about the end result (be it a website, a logo, and marketing collateral), but also think about creating a solid and well presented brand guidelines book. This book should be the visual identity bible for that client, it should include technical information about what fonts (include stroke weights and sizes) the brand uses, as well as what primary and secondary colours (hex codes, RGB, CMYK and pantones) the brand uses etc etc. The brand guidelines book should also include information on the brand's personality, rules on how various elements work together, for example how and when to use the logo with the tagline, when and which fonts can be bold etc etc. It should serve as an in depth guide that documents all information that is relevant to the brand and visual identity that you created. You client will appreciate this.

Another important thing, which isn't a step, but an overall consideration - time and care. You are creating a visual identity for a brand. Yes, you are getting paid for it, but you shouldn't see it as a job. You should see it as an honour. An honour that you are trusted to create and organizations look and feel. You should always remain professional, and always try to make informed and educated design decisions, you should treat the business that you are creating a visual identity for as if it was your own. Don’t cut corners. And aim to create a visual identity that will get people talking.

You must also be strong in your opinions, and back them up with detailed and compelling justification. Don’t get to the stage where the client is dictating everything and you are just doing it to make the client happy. Be passionate about your decisions and articulate why you think the brand would benefit from looking and feeling a certain way. Remember you are the expert in the design field - thats why the client hired you, so be act like the expert.

You are currently a Senior Designer at MuleSoft. What are the biggest challenges you face on this job?

I’ve been at MuleSoft for almost 3 years now. I started working for them as a graphic designer whilst living in Buenos Aires, before recently getting transferred to their head office in San Francisco to be their lead designer. It’s been, and continues to be a great experience. MuleSoft is a tech startup, that does software and application integration - which admittedly isn’t the sexiest or most interesting subject you could talk about whilst on a dinner date, however that’s the beauty and challenge of my job as their lead designer - to make software integration sexy, interesting and appealing to both a wide and narrow target audience. As their lead designer I have to make sure that we are making the complicated technical stuff look simple, understandable and digestible, yet still look robust and trustworthy.

Another challenge is dealing with the many passionate opinions or ‘cooks in the kitchen’. We have a vast marketing team, all of which care for the company and subsequently have strong opinions on design and how we look to the outside work, we regularly present our work, and get great feedback from the marketing team and beyond, however occasionally one piece of feedback contradicts another, a challenge is knowing which piece of feedback is the right call. Luckily for me and rest of the creative team, we work with really great and level headed Art Directors like Michael Hindman and Veronika Kainz - working with great people can make any challenge, or hurdle easier to surpass. 

What do you wish to do in the future, professionally, that you haven’t done yet?

I have a number of passion or dream projects in my head that I would LOVE to work on. As a designer I walk around which ever city, town, street, or supermarket that I am in, and I analyze in my mind each and every piece of graphic design that I see. In my mind I look to see what could be improved as well as what designs have been done well, and what designs haven't been done so well. I also imagine in my little head, what kind of designer worked on the projects or pieces of graphic design that I stumble across. You can always spot a lazy designer. I take lots of photos on my phone, and whilst most normal people have lots of photos of night out with friends, nice moments with the girlfriend etc, etc, mine is full of photos of nice lettering, beer bottle labels, nice packaging, interesting typogaphy and other random bits and pieces of design that I come across and admire.

In my ‘little graphic design dream world’, I occasionally think, I would have loved to have worked on that project, or I would have loved redesign that logo or that design.

My lifetime's ambition would be to design a logo for a professional football (Soccer) team. I am a huge football fan, and I would love to combine my two passions - Football and Graphic Design to create something that passionate fans would adore. It would be such an honour the create something that represents a football club and their fans, something that player would wear with pride and fans would adore.

It is also an ambition of mine to create beer bottle labels. I think theres an art to creating a memorable beer bottle labels.

It’s amazing to think that you can visually say so much about a beer or the company behind the beer in just the 5 cm by 10 cm that they allow you. It annoys me when I see boring, or poorly design beer labels - I always think ‘I could have made that label more memorable’.

There’s so much that I want to do in the future. Other passion or dream projects include restaurant identity - I love the idea of walking into a restaurant that I have creatively influenced. I’d also like to design wine bottle labels and I also wanted to have my own t-shirt label, designing and selling high quality cool and edgy t-shirts.

You recently started your own project, Desinion. Is this your first entrepreneurial venture? What has been your experience, so far?

I think most designers or illustrators, especially the good ones, have an natural entrepreneurial spirit. I am no different. I had the idea for Desinion rolling around in my brain for a good 3 months before I started design and development. I was sure that it would be valuable to the industry and offer something that isn't already out there.

We launched Desinion just under 2 months ago and so far it has been an overwhelming and exciting success. Some very big design magazines, blogs and respected designers and illustrators from various countries have picked up on the potential and value that if offers to designers, illustrators and art directors, and have written and published some very positive pieces about Desinion.

Starting any venture is super exciting, I’ve love every minute of it. I’m no business expert, far from it. However I think what has helped me in the particular venture is that I am the target audience - I am a designer and have been for a long time, and like to think that I know how the good designers think, and what they need and what could make their lives and design processes easier, both in the development of designs and pitching to clients - I think that Desinion does offer something different, and useful to designers and illustrators. What also helps is that I want to do this for the good of the industry and the designer / illustrator, its not about making money, its about making something cool, that people gain value from and get excited about using.

If you had to guide someone new to graphic design, who wants to learn, what would you insist they do? (you can also include resources here, anything you feel is relevant)

There’s so many things. One important thing is when you are actually in the beautiful midsts of creating your designs for a client, you should question everything you do, every move you make. Try to justify every design decision, and make sure that your design decisions line up with what the creative brief asks for. For example: Ask yourself, why am I making that stroke 3px instead of 1px? Why am I choosing this font, over that font?, make sure that you are able to articulate and validate to yourself why you made the decisions that you made - at first this will be annoying and taxing on the brain, but it will help you become a better and more thoughtful designer. It will also help you when you have to present your designs to your clients. I used to design in a very visual manner, making design decisions based solely on aesthetics, which was fine up until a point, however when you are in front of a client, you have to justify your decisions, and the common line - ‘because i thought it looked good’ doesn't cut it.

I would say experience over education. I would suggest to anyone (that wants to listen to me) that getting actual studio experience is worth a lot more than doing a university course. University has its merits, such as allowing you to dabble in different creative mediums, however the amount of hands-on knowledge, info about technical and creative processes and experience that you get from working 8-10 hours in a design studio per day is an unbelieveable learning curve. I would say that the tougher and more professional studio that you work, or volunteer / intern at, the better. Yes you may have a few uncomfortable design critique sessions, however all of this will put you in good stead in the future.  

I would also say - stay creative outside of work. I was once at work, waiting in line to get some food, and a friend and our copywriter asked me, ‘Chris, what do you do when you are at home and you are not at work?’, I replied with - ‘It’ll sound sad and nerdy to you, but I design things’. And I do. I stay creative outside of work by designing things. Things that I want to design, I become my own designer and client. It’s not laborious, nor forced, its extremely enjoyable and fun. I still find time to have a good few beers with my mates, and go out and do some cool stuff, however designing and being creative is my job, hobby and passion all rolled into one. I would recommend that anyone wanting to get into graphic design does the same - stay creative, and enjoy what you do.

Now, if you get the pro version, you get to see detailed stats, like the industry your audience works in and their position. You also get to download your stats as pdf reports and show them to the client/boss/decision maker of your project, in order to sustain your decision with solid arguments (works kinda like a focus group, only cheaper and faster).

You will also be able to create private debates, which is pretty cool, because you get to pick your audience and you don’t break any confidentiality clauses on your design contract.

Wanna know more? Go ahead and read the exclusive interview I did with the founder of Desinion, senior designer Chris Payne:

With Desinion, you basically created an efficient tool that helps designers get simple feedback on their work, to A/B test and see which version is better (and to my knowledge, there is no such platform around). How did this idea come to you?

The idea for Desinion came about when I was briefed to work on an illustration project alongside a fellow designer. We both received the same creative brief, but we were having a series of tense disagreements about which style of illustration would be more relevant and appealing to the audience. We constantly went back to the brief, however we still had different interpretations of what that meant: I believed that the target audience in question – mature and technical savvy - would react better to sharp, crisp and technical illustrations; whereas my colleague believed that the audience would react more positively to illustrations which were more playful, flat-styled, with rounded corners. Our two conflicting opinions caused unnecessary tension which emanated to the final client presentation, in which the client had to make a ‘gut feeling’ decision as to which was more suitable.

We then decided to print the two design options onto a piece of paper and carry out a quick straw poll by passing it around the office. This would help us to see which design style our colleagues thought would be better suited to the target audience, and although my design style came out on top, I remember thinking to myself that there must be a better way to evaluate and test design styles. This led me to start to think about creating something to rectify this extremely common problem in the design process.

I did my research to see what other design feedback sites existed, and found some amazing sites such as Dribbble, and Behance, which are a great source of inspiration for designers. As good as these sites are, I did think that their feedback section was generally too tame, almost too nice.

Most comments provided for the designs on show went along the lines of “Great work”, “Nice job”, “Love this”, and although these comments were fully deserved (as the work on these sites is of a very high standard), I wanted to create something which would be more direct, and that would be more beneficial to the designer. Something which would assist the process of design. Something interesting which would provide the designer and the decision-maker with metrics, comments and statistics on their work. Something which designers could use in their client presentations to either prove a point, back up their original hunch or show an interesting insight on their designs. And so, from that the idea for Desinion was born.

Why Desinion?

Coming up with a name for this thing was actually really difficult. It was easier to think of the idea! I settled on Desinion because it was a mixture of Design + Opinion - which is essentially what the site is about - showing designs and getting opinions.

Did you put a lot of thought into it, from a business point of view, when you started Desinion? Or was it more of a “passion-product”?

It was easy to think up, as having been a designer for many years I am familiar with the design process and the process of giving and getting feedback on one or two design or illustration concepts. Once the initial idea ‘popped into my head’, I just took what real life experience I had when seeking feedback on my design concepts and put it online.

To be honest it still is a passion project. Yes, there’s a business side to it, but all the money that is made from the people who sign up to DesinionPro goes straight back into the product, to produce exciting and necessary new features, to help maintenance and to build the community. The number one priority is to build a great product that designers and illustrators will find extremely useful and love. While the pro version offers great benefits to the designer and also helps us invest in improvements faster, the key is and will always be building a great product.

How much work was involved up to this point? How many people worked on it, for how long?

There has been a lot of work done on Desinion and there’s a lot more to come. We are going to be rolling out some exciting new features in the very near future - features that will take Desinion to a new level, and be extremely useful to both the designer and the decision maker.

Currently, it is just my myself and an exceptionally talented developer Alejandro Pedretti that works on Desinion. I also have a few trusted designer friends that I bounce idea off. Alejandro and I work really well together. I take care of Desinion’s direction and vision for the future, as well as designing everything (both roles and responsibilities are extremely exciting), and Alejandro carefully and thoughtfully develops the site, and well as advises me one technical limitations and keeps my feet on ther ground (i sometimes get overly ambitious and excited).

How many users do you have now?

We’ve just broken the 10,000 mark. But we get loads of new users each day.

What was the general feedback from the users, so far?

We’ve had loads of feedback from many designers and design enthusiasts all over the world. We have also been monitoring twitter, facebook and other sites that have featured Desinion, and the responses and reactions that people have had to the product, and so far we are happy to say that it is proving to be a useful tool for designers. We take immense pride in the positive comments we see on social media, and that we receive via email. Similarly we evaluate and look to learn from the negative or doubting comments that we have seen.

We will always listen to feedback from Desinion users. Their needs and suggestions will help shape the future of Desinion. One casing point is that we saw a few comments saying that they liked Desinion, however they would like to give and get more context on the design concepts that they both upload and they offer opinions on, we learn from these comments from Desinion users and now, we are rolling out an exciting new feature that will allow for designers to offer more context on their designs, and people who offer their opinion on designer’s concepts to get more context on what they are opinionating on.

What are your expectations with this project, in the long run?

There’s a lot that we want to do. As I previous said, Desinion is just under 3 months old, and although we have seen early success, we are still very much in our infancy. We are watching and learning from our users all the time, and we have some super exciting new features and functionality that both designers and decision makers will love. These are in development as we speak, and I can’t wait for our exciting users and future users to access these new features.

We will continue to be innovative and build this product with the user always in mind. Currently Desinion offers designers the chance to test one design against another (very much like and A/B testing tool) and get a breakdown of statistics on what different demographics thought about each design - which is a great starting point, and extremely useful for designs and decision makers, however we want to grow the service beyond what it currently is, so there will be more ways to getting useful and constructive opinions, comments, feedback and statistics on your illustrations or design. We are in development with most of the new features and can't wait to see and hear what the users of Desinion think to the future improvements.

Keep up with Desinion: website | facebook | twitter 

How did the project start, where did the idea come from?

One day while I was lying on the bed I came up with the idea to do a project that I would have to work on every day. I wanted to advance some of my skills and maybe learn something new. This is how the idea of the "Icon a day" was born. Originally the main idea was to do mainly mini icons which would later be used for applications and web pages. But the more work I did, more and more they became illustrations. But I'm not sorry. I evolved a lot. And that is the most important thing to me.

What is your inspiration for these icons? Do you also do icons based on suggestions from your followers?

I get inspiration from everyday life, life situations and I also get suggestions from friends. And yes, I do get suggestions from my followers from different social networks. Any suggestion or proposal is welcome, as sometimes there is no inspiration, and that is when suggestions from followers certainly help :D

What is the process you go through, when creating an icon? What are the steps, from draft to final result? 

I do not do sketches. For one reason only. I do not have enough time. I start with drawing lines of the illustration as I imagined it, and then go to the "coloring" where I change the shape and the meaning of the illustration if necessary.

How long does it take you to create one? 

It depends on the illustration I am working on. On weekends when I have more time I can work on the project even up to five hours. That is when I create my best icons, the ones I am most satisfied with. On the other hand, sometimes when I do not have time due to certain life situations, I can finish the icon in only half an hour. I recall making the “Donut" icon in only 20 minutes. Sometimes the time spent in preparation depends a lot on my current mood. If I'm not in the mood it will take me less and the quality of the illustrations will be worse.

Creating 365 icons in a year is a big commitment! Do you also have days when you don't have the time, or mood, to create a new icon? How do you deal with those days? :)

Of course. Sometimes there is nothing I would rather do than call it an early night but I have to work on an illustration. Whenever I think of not doing an illustration I think to myself: if I got this far why give up now. I am a very persistent person when I set my mind on doing something. I am only half way there and I have no intention of giving up! :) 

What is the goal with creating icons? Can people buy and use any of them, for their websites (for instance)? Are they any different than any other form of art, do they have a practical purpose?

Of course. A lot of people are interested in buying. But that's not the primary goal of this project. There were plenty of offers to do something according to the idea of a client that resemble the icons on icon-a-day.com page. I have received a lot of positive feedback from people all over the world who have given me their support.

Do you get many commissions, based on these icons people see?

Of course, almost every day. But unfortunately, due to the daily work load and the reduction of free time due to this project, I do not have the opportunity to accept all the job offers I receive. Maybe after I complete this project.

I have an idea about where your nickname, Samnuts, comes from, but why don’t you tell me?

Haha! The first part is a diminutive of my name, Samantha, and the second part is because I’m kinda nuts :)

Your art style is awesome, you have a lot of monsters doodles in your illustrations. How did you develop this style?

Thanks! I draw since I knew how to hold a pen, but I developed my style with the internet, what I saw everywhere.

What (or who) inspires you for your works?

Street art, board culture and all the news on art culture I can find.

What kind of projects (commissioned projects) do you usually work on?

I can work on everything but usually I like to work on paper, canvas, boards, sun glasses, shoes... You can order any customized objects from me (guitars, tables, wallpaper). I like to change my supports.

You sell a lot of products with your doodles. Tell me a little bit about that.

I started 2 or 3 years ago. I sell everything!  Ukuleles, shoes, “the monster box”, some screen printing like bags/tees, phone cases… I get my supplies in the art store in my city.

I start with an idea and I try to work on it. When I’m satisfied I start with a pencil then with posca. Sometimes I start direct with the posca. Finally I varnished my customs.

I don’t have any partnerships but as a freelancer I have some good prices :)

You use many materials, are the varnishes different too (from plastic, to wood, to textile)?  

I live in a small flat so I only use industrial spray can varnishes for now. It works on quasi all solid support. For the shoes I use a waterproof spray and the t-shirt are screen printing homemade!

How does posca work? Is it permanent, or is it easy to erase?

It’s not permanant but it’s adapted to all supports and it’s waterproof. Posca is water based paint, it covers well.

What tools do you use in your work?

I use pen, paper, posca, touch pen, spray can. Digitally, I use photoshop and illustrator a lot!

What is your best-selling product?

The sunglasses! They all are unique, the’re small, fun, you can take them anywhere and they fall within the budget of most people.

Would you say that selling your art is profitable, for illustrators? Is it, for you?

No I think it’s a passion first! It is very hard to live from art but not impossible. Like a lot of illustrators, I’ll take it step by step.

How would you define the (street) art industry in France? Is it super developed, are there many talented artists, is this skill wanted?

It’s a hard question, there are a lot of talented street artists in France. But street art is worldwilde, and so are a lot of artists. But I think street art in France grows more and more, I see a lot of new original art events.

What is your biggest challenge, professionally?

To be able to live from art is already a big challenge!

What would you like to do, in the future, in your career, that you haven’t done yet?

I’d like to work in co-branding with board culture brand or others. I’m open to everything, any collab.