We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laurent Pinabel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laurent below.

Laurent, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

After studying art in France, I worked for several years as an art director in communications agencies in Paris (France), then in Montreal (Canada). I created many visuals for show posters, as well as numerous pictorial environments. I’ve always needed to get my hands dirty. I left the corporate world to become a freelance graphic designer, visual artist and illustrator. Customers come to me for my style. Since 2005, I’ve been designing for my own clients or for myself. It’s a full-time job. I don’t do much graphic design anymore. My work spans many different media in visual art and illustration (murals, TV animation, magazines, books, posters, packaging, skateboards…). When I don’t have a commission, I use my free time to explore new media.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My mantra (and work motto) is “The best service you can give a customer is not to give them exactly what they want”. This means that if you give them exactly what they ask for, you run the risk of disappointing them a little (unless they’re really controlling), because you always have to come up with something extra, something unexpected, and sometimes even completely surprise them by offering something very different. That’s how I try to respond to my customers. That doesn’t mean I succeed every time. Sometimes I play with clichés and conventional ideas, but I try to approach them differently. On the other hand, I’ve always liked to use texture and line, to create visuals with a restricted language (few effects and few colors) and to apply eye-catching shapes. I like to create complete universes. For example, for one client I started by simply working on the graphic design of his brochures, then the advertising. As I inserted more and more illustrations and hand-drawn typography, I ended up creating a complete universe that was applied to all their media (stores, cards, TV, murals, signage…). Recently, I’ve been working with architect-scenographers and a company that creates interactive spaces. Together we worked on a large museum project for a permanent exhibition. It was a 360-degree visual universe (large 9-foot-high cut-out illustrations, on-screen animations, wall projections, interactive screens, murals mixing design, information and images…). Just recently, another customer gave me a purely artistic commission. To celebrate the company’s 5th anniversary, he wanted to create a large-scale public mural. I was given carte blanche, with the sole brief of creating a visual related to the company’s activities (public transport). It was a visual artist’s mandate, and I’m very proud of it.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

What I love about my job is that anything can become a source of inspiration. When I started working, I was afraid of the symdrome of the blank page, the emptiness, the lack of inspiration. And it happened at least 2 times a year, when I felt empty or drained. And the more I struggled, the less it came. I haven’t struggled with that demon for a long time now. When you’re working on several projects at the same time, it’s like a system of communicating vessels. Ideas and sketches from one project inspire another, and then another. Like many people, I’m more productive when I’m working on several projects at the same time. Not too many, though, otherwise the stress blocks inspiration. When inspiration isn’t there, anything external can help. You have to be in an off mode, and be receptive. Do some sport, go to the cinema, see an exhibition, chat with friends over a drink or simply take a walk in the street. Two things happen: the mind empties and we absorb different information and images from the environment that can challenge, transform and inspire us. The click. For example, not long ago, I was looking for an idea for an illustration. I couldn’t find the right angle. As I was going out for coffee in the garden, I saw a plant that looked like octopus tentacles. The octopus became my creative axis for this project.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This pivotal time, I think I’ve been living it for a few years. It is not a 90-degree turn, but a long turn. As I mentioned earlier, my job was primarily as an art director and graphic designer. And even if my visual approach was recognizable, you can’t always fight against trends, fashion, the talent of young creatives and even some who are inspired by your work, but who charge less…So I didn’t imagine growing old and surviving like an old graphic designer. I know that in this environment, my time could stop despite my experience. That’s why my turn is that of illustration and visual arts. They have always been there, but now they really dominate my practice and my artistic approach. For some time now, I have been entrusted with artistic projects and I see myself evolving in this way.

Contact Info:

• Website: pinabel.com
• Instagram: laurent pinabel
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinabel.illustration
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurent-pinabel
• Other: https://www.pinabel-illustrations.com/

Image Credits
Sophie Lecathelinais and Bernard Fougère (EXO Montreal)