Interview with Illustrator Antoine Corbineau

Escape From Illustration Island is teaming up with The Creative Finder to bring you the following interview with one of their current Featured Illustrators, Antoine Corbineau.

Antoine Corbineau is a young french illustrator/art director based in Paris who rebranded the cult american TV show The Electric Company and designed its new logo while freelancing in NY. He also directed the 100th anniversary of London College of Fashion promotional video (with Daniel Price and Luke Crocket).

He is a graduate in Graphic Design from Camberwell College of Art London, UK, and the Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg, FR. He has so far worked with designers like PlusetPlus in New York or Pierre Bernard in Paris.

EFII:  Your work features a playful use of color while maintaining a cohesive color scheme.  How do you achieve this balance?

Antoine Corbineau: I guess the balance is achieved with time and practice, but I always have in mind what I’ve been taught during after-school painting course I always took when I was a kid: a blue zone as to respond to another blue zone on the frame, to balance it.  It works out no matter how many colours are used on a visual I guess. The idea is to create a global interdependance: every area has a role on the visual overall balance. Actually, I have been recently trying to limit the amount of colour I use, and focus more on compositions, but I keep experimenting with colour choices on self-initiated paintings.

EFII:How did you approach the rebranding of the Electric Company?  What challenges did you face on this project?

AC: I was actually an intern when I was put in charge of the job! I first thought it would be just another intern pitch that would end up in a garbage… But I took it very seriously, worked hard on it and it went through. It is now the 2nd season they are using the logo and identity on TV and internet. Hardest part was to understand the american youth culture and aesthetic references which are different to my european/french background. Hard part was also getting only a ridiculous stipend rewarding the large amount of work… Nevertheless I am proud of this work, it is a smart TV program, that’s rare.

EFII: What inspires you to create such innocent and playful work?

AC: Well, probably my unhability to draw properly! I also like the idea of finding solutions with limited tools, and as my drawing skills are limited, the result may have an innocent feeling. It may also come from the fact that I have always been surrounded and delighted by folk art / naive art / west africa art books and paintings at home.

EFII: How do your interests in political and cultural issues make their way into your work?

AC: They sometimes do in a way, I get more and more green-care related projects and enjoy it. I sometimes do self-initiated projects just to make people hire me to do more. And I feel more useful on that kind of projects, at least less useless, than if I was asked to design some cute cats for a trendy clothes brand…

EFII:  What do you think inspires Art Directors to hire you for their projects?

AC: The fact that I draw complex networks, links, anything linked to another, connections. It seems that many brands or else currently communicate on that aspect of their product or service. They like colours too. And the hand-made aspect, I suppose.

Special  thanks to Antoine Corbineau and TAXI + The Creative Finder for making this interview possible.  You can view more of Antoine’s Illustration work here.

Related Posts:

• EFII Podcast Episode 32 – Martin French
• EFII Podcast Episode 26 – Ron English
• EFII Podcast Episode 21 – Josh Cochran
• EFII Podcast Episode 18 – Gary Taxali

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