We chat with dynamic duo, Thomas Weil & Quentin Weisbuch about who, where, what, and why they started up Studio Furious. They talk about their large spectrum of clients, from fashion to food to architecture to branding, and their love of colorful cartoons and insane pop commercials.
Where did you study and what were some of your first jobs?
Thomas graduated his post degree graphic design diploma at ENSAAMA (Paris) in 2008. He had his first job experience in London at GTF and worked a bit at Frederic Teschner Studio back in 2010.
Quentin graduated a master in Product design at Strate College in 2010. After a few experiences in industrial design, Quentin discovered he had a thing for Visual communication and decided to become a graphic designer.
Anyway, we met in 2011 as we both worked in the same agency named Polymago (a Paris based graphic design studio). Between 2010 and 2014 we worked as a team for Polymago’s most prestigeous clients, mostly french museums. We were in charge of designing visual identities and prints for many french cultural museums (such as Chateau de Versailles, Centre Pompidou, Musées des Beaux-Arts de Dijon ect…).
What was your plan after graduating and what actually happened?
After a while, we got a bit bored of working at Polymago for those very politically correct institutions. So we started to collaborate together on alternative projects during our free time, mainly during lunch time… That’s where the Fat & Furious Burger project started. At the office, we had 1 hour and a half lunch break and a big kitchen… so we decided to use this time to break the routine and develop our creativity by cooking some crazy burgers we would reveal every thursday on our blog. We didn’t have much more ambition than sharing this with our friends and collegues, but the blog was a huge and unexpected success. Thanks to this success, we started to collaborate with restaurants, magazines, agencies and brand and event had the chance to publish our own crazy cook book.
We had so many collaboration proposals that we couldn’t manage to keep our jobs at Polymago. So back in september 2014 we decided launch our own creation studio that we called Studio Furious.
Give us the elevator pitch on what you do now.
I think Studio Furious’s Leitmotif is to melt both our graphic skills & uncommon photographic experience to create vibrant design that had some attitude.
We are very happy to work for a large spectrum of clients. From Fashion to Food, from culture to Design, from Architecture to Branding… Any area seems relevant, as long as we can bring our graphic design & photographic skills together to offer a global Art Direction vision.
How did you develop your style as photographers and what tips would you have for others?
Let’s be honest, we both have a thing for trash, filthy, vulgar kitch and brutal images. We were raised in the 90’s with colorful cartoons and insane pop commercials and we are now very bored with today’s lifeless aesthetic. We like contrasts, weirdness and shockingly appealing images. But as we are both kind of a bipolar person, we are also very found of sober and classic aesthetic. We believe less is more and minimalism can be a way to powerful communication. So whatever art direction is chosen at Furious, we first work on ideas and concepts before we choose a certain aesthetic (whether it’s kitch or sober… or a subtil mix).
So I guess our tips would be to work on your own ideas before trying to stick to your own « style ».
Let’s be honest, we both have a thing for trash, filthy, vulgar kitch and brutal images. We were raised in the 90’s with colorful cartoons and insane pop commercials and we are now very bored with today’s lifeless aesthetic.
What has been some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt along the way?
1. Don’t be afraid to say: I don’t know, but I’m willing to learn.
2. Don’t work on our own. Ideas are so much better when shared.
3. Don’t think your first idea is the best. (Sometimes it is, but mostly one good idea leads to a better one).
4. Don’t work for free. It just kills our profession as people won’t consider you as a professional.
5. Trust your fun: As long as you have fun with your work, people will enjoy it. But if you think you’re getting a bit bored of it, don’t try to stick to it and look for other ways to do things.
Whats the big goal in the next five years?
Make some more space in the work timeline for personal researches & start using our art direction skills on new fields (animation, video, industrial design, illustration…)
Website:
Instagram:
Where to find Studio Furious online.
