@ananaisdesign

Instagram: @ananaisdesign

1. What’s your story? Where are you from?

Hey, I'm Anaïs, I'm a French 26-year old graphic designer and illustrator. I started illustration about 3 years ago go and before that, I was an interior design student. I am from Clermont-Ferrand a city in the centre of France. Since I was little I was always interested in design. I never really knew what I wanted to do but I followed the path that I thought was mine which was architecture. So I carried on studying architecture and when I got my degree I started to look for jobs and there was an opening for a job as a graphic designer. Since I had to make a living I was like why not, so I got the job as a graphic designer and in parallel, I studied graphic design because I didn't know anything about graphic design. That's how I knew I loved this path that I was taking and that's what I wanted to do with my life. When I was studying graphic design I discovered web design and then I fell in love with web design. So what I did is that I found another job as a web designer and also a graphic designer that could pay my school to study web design. That's where I'm currently at. When I was studying graphic design, I started to draw a lot I really loved it and then was like why not create an Instagram page to share my art, since I didn't want to spam my friends with my art. 

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I love drawing quite minimalist illustrations with a small colour palette. I think it makes the whole illustration more coherent. I love mixing different mediums like illustrations, animations, crafted things like stickers. 

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I mostly use procreate to make my art because I love the idea of having something I can edit again and again and the fact that it's easier to upload it on the internet. I also like a lot screen printing and using after effects to make short animations. 

4. What is your artistic process like?

At first, I sketch a little idea and then create it on whichever medium I want. But that's when I have an idea ear because for me the toughest part is to have an idea. So before doing actually doing the art I get inspiration from wherever I can. I get inspiration from other artists or on Pinterest or in my everyday life, and sometimes it just comes out of nowhere (which is what I like the most haha). Let's gets the example of a simple illustration. When I have my sketch and everything, I start actually drawing a clean sketch on procreate. Then I draw the final illustration with the colour palette that I chose. At the moment I have kind of the same colour palette and it evolves into other palettes because I add more colours or just remove some but it's always the same kind of atmosphere so I can have a uniformed Instagram feed. 

5. Who and/or what inspires your work? 

I usually get inspired by my personal life, like the smell of coffee can inspire me or just a walk around my neighborhood! 

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Art is a big part of my life, I always wanted to work in the art field but never really knew what I wanted to do in particular. Now I know that I want to be a designer. It can be space design, graphic design, illustration or web design, everything interests me! In my personal life art plays a big role, I always think of what I want to do next and got to meet a lot of artists through Instagram and the different schools I went to. 

7. Where did you study?

When I got my baccalaureat went to the Architecture school of Clermont Ferrand and only studied there for a year. Then, I studied at the design school of Nevers (a small city in the centre of France called l'ESAAB (l'école supérieure d'arts appliqués de Bourgogne) and got an architecture degree. The 2 years I spent working for my degree at this school were probably the best and the most interesting years of my scholarship. For the last 2 years, I studied graphic design and web design in Clermont Ferrand. I finally finish school at the end of this year! 

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

I see myself in a small city working as a designer in a house, probably with a dog and a lot of interesting projects with a lot of different artists! I also would love to publish a comic. 

9. What about in ten?

I hope I still do all of this, but with more maturity and working for different people all over the world. That would definitely be a dream!And also not one dog but two, please. 

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

I'm trying to show bodies, but not only skinny bodies, all bodies with their shapes and forms. If it can help a tiny bit to change the stereotypes of the bodies we see in the media and what people find beautiful, that would be my biggest achievement. 

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

I love the lasagnas I make, with the recipe my Italian grandma gave me. But don't tell her I prefer mine! 

12. Favourite book?

I love comics and my favorite is California Dreamin by Pénélope Bagieu. I love her style and the fact that she drew the whole comic book with a pencil is something I really like! 

13. Favourite genre of music? 

I like indie and the French touch. Like for me the perfect song is Let It Happen by Tame Impala. It's my all-time favorite and I always get goosebumps whenever I hear it. It's the perfect song to pump yourself! 

14. What are your hobbies? 

When I'm not drawing or designing things I love playing music. Since I was a kid, I always played music, I started violin at 6, piano at 8 and guitar at 14! So whenever I'm bored I just pick one of these instruments and have fun! Except that I play a lot (like a LOT of Zelda Breath Of The Wild, it's my guilty pleasure. 

15. If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?

I would have loved to be an architect, that's what I studied in the first place. But apart from the art field, I would have loved to be a teacher! Since I was 17 I was a camp counselor every summer and loved to teach kids new stuff. For the summer of 2016 I was a camp counselor and a French teacher at a French camp in San Francisco and just loved it!