Pacmoon by georgeslemercenaire

Print on 500 black laFraise’s t-shirts.

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Second place : 1 free t-shirt

Paint your world by radiomode

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Third place: 1300 brouzoufs

Otter meditation by randyotter

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Thanks to all participants!

Patience by Anythinggoes

Anythinggoes gives you a lesson of patience with his new design Patience ! A nice t-shirt to wear on any countdown?

Hi Anythinggoes,

Could you please introduce yourself to those in the community who don’t know you yet? Who are you, how and why did you get into graphic design?
I’m a Belgium based illustrator and graphic designer. After graduating from animation school, I rarely touched a pencil for a few years.  Between working in a theatre, running a family and leading an extensive social life, there seemed no time left for illustrating. A couple of years ago I picked up where I left off and now not a day goes by without drawing and making designs.

Can you please tell us the story behind “Patience”? What inspired you and how did you create the design? Did you have any difficulties?
A stack of post-its and an empty page. I like the use of negative space on a tee, to use the colour of the shirt as one of the main colours of the design, so the design gets integrated into the shirt.

Have you ever had a lack of inspiration and what do you do when that happens?
No, it always feels like I lack the time to finish all the work in my head.

Who is your favourite artist/designer at the moment? Why?
So many, Jon Foster, Ron Mueck, Jason Chan, Tardi, Liberatore, Pratt, Cartier Bresson, a lot of music, writers like China Miéville, Cormac McCarthy… Every artistic field has it’s own masters and I try to enjoy and learn from them all.

If you weren’t a graphic designer, what would you have done for a living?
I would be a craftsman, a carpenter.

What do you think the recipe for patience is? Are you patient yourself?
I am patient in my work. Not so patient with people, but I am working on that.

Do you have advice for graphic designers who are starting to working in this field?
It’s a cliché, but (like most clichés) a true one: work hard, be nice and keep on learning.

Learn more about Anythinggoes

Lucifer by ndikol

3rd round of interview for Ndikol and his spitfire Dragon. Ndikol answered a quite funny interview only for you.

Hi Ndikol, nice to talk to you again !
Hi Nathalie, nice to speak to you again! ☺

Do you like dragons?
Yes, I really like dragons. Dragons are such cute and funny animals. These animals can cook without a stove or light a cigarette without a match.

Are you a smoker?
Yes, sometimes I smoke when out of the house … I’m still afraid that my mom scold if she know that I was smoking in the house.

It seems you love animals since you design unicorns, dragons, deers and such sweet things? Why do you design animals instead of something else? What attracts you most to them?
Yes I’m an animal lover, especially fat cats. Actually I also don’t know why I prefer designing cute animals instead of something else. It suddenly appeared in my mind. I just think that the animal’s design is the cutest thing and maybe that’s what attracts me the most when designing animals.

Are you engaged in animal protection?
Yes of course. I think we should be more concerned about the protection of animals. We should not hunt them; we should protect and preserve animals, especially animals facing extinction.

Is Lucifer inspired by any film?
No, it’s not. Actually I only see similarities of Lucifer with dragon heads that are spouting fire from their mouth.

What is the most amazing thing that happened to you?
The most amazing thing that happened to me is when my design was printed by laFraise. I can’t describe how happy I am. It’s really awesome.

Which fruit – except strawberries – do you like?
Honestly, I like fruits very much because they are healthy for our body. But the fruits I like most are grapes and mangoes.

ndikol

This week’s winner is vinsse’s penguin design! These little guys and the expressions characterised in their eyes will make this simple design become such a strong shirt. Bravo!

Fonte des glaces

To be printed on 500 organic shirts.

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Second place: 1 free t-shirt

Snack fight by oscarospina

An action packed design with a violent touch to it – the faces of the crisps in the background and the ref were well done! The colours were also well chosen!

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Third place: 1300 brouzoufs

Milk shake by scroluna

The cow’s face is brilliant! Great idea – but the order of the images was a bit confusing. Certainly worth working on it and re-submitting a new version!

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Congrats to you guys and thanks to all participants!

Happiness by tavutactac

Hi Tavutactac,

Please introduce yourself to those in the community who don’t know you yet. How and why did you get into graphic design?
My name is Eric, I’m 31 years old and have been a graphic designer for 12 years. I’ve tried to quit but I can’t. I did several jobs in agencies as an employee or freelancer in Paris and its suburbs. I then decided to flee from the rhythm Subway/work/sleep and settled in Brittany where I’m the communication director for a firm.

Tell us the story behind Happiness? What inspired you and how did you create the design? Did you have any difficulties?
We come across people who complain about everything 10 times a day.
I’ve used undefined traces in order to visually intensify the impossibility of solving this equation. … It is a simple design for the hardest thing to find … happiness.

Have you ever had a lack of inspiration and what did you do?
Generally I put everything aside and wait until it comes back. Depending on the weather, I can go for a walk on the beach or go to a bar for a drink.

Who is your favourite artist/designer at the moment? Why?
When you see the innumerable amount of visual information that we receive every day, it is very difficult to make a pertinent choice. I store lines, textures and colours somewhere in my head more than names actually.

If you weren’t graphic designer, what would you do?
Sushi delivery man in a helicopter!

What is your biggest fear in life?
That is stops.

What would you do if you won the lottery?
I would keep on working and do my shopping at the same place … just kidding, I would throw a huge party!!! I would make sure my family was financially safe and depending on the amount, I would gladly give money to some organisations.

What could make the world better? What is your recipe of happiness? What makes you happy?
That people stop looking at their bellies. The same as the recipe for french toast. My wife.

Thanks to laFraise for this selection and the good vibes on the website!
Thanks for the interview!

Cute cat by Happyfish

Hello Happyfish !

Could you please introduce yourself to those in the community who don’t know you yet? Who are you, how and why did you get into graphic design?
Hi my name is Laurent, I’m 27 years old and work as a graphic designer at Ubisoft in Montpellier. I’ve also been a freelancer for about 3 years. I have a degree in graphic communication and I did one year at les beaux arts in Angoulême.

Can you please tell us the story behind Cute cat? What inspired you and how did you create the design? Did you have any difficulties?
I had already submitted this idea to laFraise 4 or 5 years ago  I was beginning with Illustrator at the time and the design wasn’t really convincing. My girlfriend remembered it and told me to re-work it for the Bloody Cute contest. And here is the difference between the first and second submission.
And I also want to say that I love cats and have two at home.

Have you ever had a lack of inspiration and what do you do when that happens?
For all pre-ordered work, it doesn’t happen or only every so often. But for my personal projects the white page syndrome happens all the time. When I have too much freedom in my creativity, it’s almost a restraint for me  When that happens, I don’t have a miracle solution, either I try and see if some idea comes up or I just wait for it in front of the computer.

Who is your favourite artist/designer at the moment? Why?
I’m afraid I don’t have any favourite artist and there are so many that it would be difficult to fix a limit. But I like Chris Ware, Riad Sattouf, Guy Delisle, Libon…

If you were not a graphic designer, what would you have done for a living?
As a kid I used to spend hours observing insects under the microscope and explore this small world. I was good in biology courses and wanted to make a profession out of it, but my grades in maths were not as good to go on there and I prefered drawing small Mickey Mouses

If you win the jackpot tomorrow, what would you do?
I would be trying to remember where I had put the winning ticket!

Thanks Hapyfish!

Visit Happyfish blog

Bubusam is back on laFraise with this week’s selection of his design Overloaded. Excellent illustration work and the right mix of cute and fun make this design a winner.

To be printed on 500 dijon coloured shirts.

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Second place: 1 free shirt

One little misstep by Anythinggoes

Great idea, but the little alien might be a little too subtle. Perhaps making him a little green would help. But, who knows, maybe that’s why he got stepped on?

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Third place: 1300 brouzoufs

Nerd by Zwet

A simple design and great idea – we liked it!

Beauty Nature by Konstantin Shalev

Beauty nature is the colourful design from the GAIA contest and we did an interview with its Designer Konstantin Shalev as well as with Sublevel, curator of the GAIA project.

Hi Konstantin

▪ Could you please introduce yourself to those in the community who don’t know you yet? Who are you, how and why did you get into graphic design?

Hello everyone, my name is Konstantin Shalev and I’m full-time freelance illustrator based out of Russia, Krasnodar city, not far from black sea. Also I’m a skateboarder and get lots of inspiration from skating. I love drawing illustrations and characters, and I want to thank laFraise for accepting my works and style, because it was the first community there I uploaded my graphic and won, it was my first step to becoming a full-time graphic designer a long time ago =)

Can you please tell us the story behind “Beauty Nature” from the GAIA contest? How did you work on the design? You used a different style from what you usually do, is it haphazard or did you want to create something new?

This design “Beauty Nature” was an absolutely new experience for me. Normally I use bold outlines, but in this design I wanted keep it clean and colourful, use different shapes and characters. I was following the guides from the laFraise blog, listened to music form Gaia, and watched nature films on the web.

I spent a lot of time to finish this design. I didn’t make a sketch, but started drawing in Illustrator. I don’t remember exactly how much time I spent on it, but I worked on it a little, added something, and closed the file. Then after working on other projects, I opened it again and added something, so I continued with this style for a few days. I didn’t realize what I had and then I finished it =) just drew with my flavour of colours and had fun.

Hi Sublevel,

Can you introduce yourself in a few lines and tell us who you are?

Thank you a lot for the invitation Nathalie! My name is Marius Bauer and I am the curator of the Gaia Project. Besides that I work as a freelance illustrator and interface designer under my label Sublevel. Currently I am working on a mobile phone for QPC which is also involved in our Gaia Project.

Can you introduce us the GAIA project?

The Gaia Project started in 2007 as a community project to raise awareness for climate change. The name Gaia is inspired by the Greek idea of nature and its network, like in the brilliant movie Avatar by James Cameron. Through the last 4 years the Gaia Project grew to a community of over 5,500 actively engaged artists from all around the world, creating one beautiful art release to celebrate the beauty of nature. Our last art release is now online at GAIA, with great works by Konstantin and more talented artists. This year we already had over 500,000 visitors and over 1,000GB of traffic in our first month. You can also find more information about us on the website and our blog.

Was it hard to write the GAIA briefing for the designers?

It was a wonderful possibility to connect with your great laFraise community! The initial short briefing to celebrate the beauty of Mother Nature in a complex and very colourful piece of work was a bit short. But with the more detailed interview coming right after the briefing I think it was a good brief for the participants. And they all did a great job by the way!

Other than Beauty Nature, the winning design, were there other designs you would have wanted to print?

Beside Konstantin’s great win, Pie’s work is one of my favourites alongside with this very creative work from Radiomode . “Nature needs you” is also an awesome typographic work! To be honest I would have chosen most of the submissions :)

A green message to tell the world?

Celebrate the beauty of nature in your daily life! Nature is the biggest source of inspiration for us as artists. Either if you are a designer, scientist, teacher or you work for any other company. You create something and so you are an artist in some kind of way. I think our positive movement to raise awareness for nature and celebrate it will bring awesome solutions of the challenges we are facing right now.

We will launch our open source network Gaian.me this year and would love to invite you all to it. I recently did an interview with Tim from the Coalition of the Willing.

Stay happy laFraisiens and have a great time with our Gaia T-Shirt! Thanks a lot to all of you contributing to this awesome contest and thanks to laFraise for making this happen!