Charlie Montagut

I am a French, HyperIsland Alumnus and Interactive Art Director working and living in the beautiful city of Paris. I currently work at stinkdigital as Lead Art Director. I also founded a creative collective called VLNC collective; I spend my time between these two occupations that are complementary. One is more commercial and has a larger budget for projects, the other one is a more pro-active, self-initiated project with "Low" to "No" budget. I am influenced by skateboard, rock, beers, beautiful things, art, and the world that is surrounding us, where i lived in Spain (actually from 0 to 2 ), Tunisia, Sweden and the US.

10 questions for Charlie Montagut:

• What did you do before becoming a designer?

  I was 16 and trying to launch my own skateboard & tee-shirt brand during my high school years. It turned out it wasn't as successful as Vans but it at least forced me to understand illustrator and how to build a website in dreamweaver WYSIWYG editor. I guess that’s what triggered me to do this kind of job.

• Where do you turn for inspiration?

  I usually go on a lots of various blogs such as it's nice that, The dieline, The inspiration, or platforms like designspiration or behance and Niice.co and then I click, and click, and click a lot and find myself somewhere I don't remember every time. Getting lost is the best way to find goldies. I also love technology and often read article about coding, arduino, robots and furniture design - a bit of everything I guess.

• Which are your favorite studios, designers or agencies?

  Jimbo Phillips, Parra, Andy Mueller, Arto Saari, sagmeister & Walsh, Dieter Rams, Unit 9, IloveDust, GoldenWolf, superscript, yuri suzuki, Julien vallée, foreal, Zeitguised, surface to air, snask, Gondry, and many more!

• Is your city a good place for designers?

  Paris is pretty old fashioned when it comes to design and art. But there is a breath of fresh air coming and more and more tiny street brands, small studios and initiatives have started to immerse these years. And there's of course a lots of museums and bookshops to dig.

• Which technologies are you excited about in 2015?

  It's more the combination of few of them that opens up a new exciting world. Oculus Rift + Leap Motion, Facetracking + Projection mapping, 3D printed QR codes, ... Ok maybe not the last one!

• Do you listen to music while you work? Describe your playlist.

  The music I listen to depends a lots on what kind of work I am doing. For example, when i have to rush a full website and a lots of screens I tend to listen to rock / hardcore (from Parquet Court to Refused and the good old AC/DC). When my time is dedicated to ideation and concepting I’ll go in the mood of more smooth stuff such as Moderat, the Rolling Stones, or the chill music of the coolest guy in the world: Mac Demarco.

• Tell us your funniest anecdote related to your work.

  I once did a project with no "make the logo bigger" feedback ... Wait, actually I didn't!

• What are you cultural influences? (Music, books, films, ideologies, etc.)

  The books of Paul Arden quite changed my mindset on how to approach professional life and of course, HyperIsland taught me a lot when it comes to brainstorming, team working, freeing your mind, ... "It's up to you" is probably my ideology.

• Have you got an academic background or are you self taught?

  I started as an half self-taught as my studies where really broad in communication and not much about design. I decided few years later to go back to school and enjoy the freedom of creating at HyperIsland in Stockholm where I met a hundred of very talented people coming from a lot of different backgrounds.

• What do you do in your free time?

  I mainly think of ideas and projects that I could do or that I’m working on, "let's build a tee shirt brand", " let's build an app", "let's have a beer" and other stuff related to playing music and riding a skateboard. I also sometimes find myself in front of a good selection of cheese and ham.

• Where do you see the industry in 5 years?

  The birth of new technology is something so exponential that I can't really imagine what it would be, however I know that as a designer, being "digital-something" won't mean anything as everything is going to be digital. I would stop being a Digital Art Director to be an Art Director. Which would fit better when centered under my name on my business card. The most important is to catch the train and try to still be at the cutting edge.

• Are you working on any personal projects?

  Not long ago, I founded a collective called VLNC. We try to work on non-commercial projects for artists, venues, and small brands. We've done some projects such as designing a bar, filming bands, or an opening video for a Breakdance festival In South Korea and now we are working on a fancy upcoming alcohol brand. I am trying to get more into filming and music videos, that's my goal for 2015.

• If you could give one piece of advice to newbie designers, what would it be?

  Work and always say “Yes” to work you think you are not capable of - that's the only way to (fail and) progress.