Arthur Gicquel
Playful and impeccably sharp graphic design from the ECV Nantes student.
Arthur Gicquel found his way into the creative world through drawing. This skill for creating patterns and intersecting forms eventually drew him to playing with images, typography and photography, and from there Arthur naturally turned his hand to graphic design.
Over the past few years, this initial foray has transformed into an impeccably sharp practice: a stunning monochrome space where geometric forms and smart thinking combine to create fresh and experimental posters. Despite its aesthetic sharpness, Arthur’s work never neglects to “just have fun with typography and graphic design.” It’s that fundamentally playful approach which is central to so much good design work. This constant drive for experimentation is especially evident on Arthur’s Instagram, where he regularly shares tests of the new avenues and techniques he’s been exploring.
Recently, Arthur has been playing around with with motion and 3D animation, pushing the boundaries of how they can be incorporated into the standard poster format: “What I enjoy most in my work is experimentation, and figuring out the different ways to integrate animation into a new project.” Hoping to take his animation skills to the next level, Arthur has been delving deep into Cinema 4D, and creating some wonderfully trippy outcomes in the process.
However, a recent project of his briefly steps out of the virtual 3D world and back into the real one. Inspired by his hometown, Brittany, Arthur documented the characteristic lighthouses scattered across its coastline. He then created a striking set of posters from these photographs, highlighting the metadata of the images. It’s an uncanny device, embedding a reflexive look at the medium used to capture the lighthouses and revealing “information that is generally hidden from the general public.”
Arthur will spend the next couple of months completing his studies at ECV, where he’s working on a project exploring street design to bring light to the local scene in Nantes. We can’t wait for the results and will be keeping our eye out for more razor-sharp posters some time soon.
