Our week in Chiang Mai is ending... It is in the north of Thaïlande, and there is a lot of craftmans and creativs here, the reason why we want to come. We stay at a very nice place outside the city, Mai Sim resort, Eric live here with his wife Pranee, that help us to speak and exchange with local people. Nice to have a office with mango trees around ! The idea beind this trip is to met creatives, peoples with amazing talents, and to work with them on products... I have met a lot of people, but the one from what I expect the most is this paper maker... this material is superb, now I have to create my own books with them... Here come some pictures to let you imagine...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also great coffee shops all around the city, all with wifi access... I really liked this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we came back to Bangkok for some days, and with Nico & Landry that I met last week, we plan to visit local letterpress printers ! So much to come !

I do this blog to inspire people... I do not know it will gave me so much in return... When I post about going to Bangkok, I get an email from Nicolas Dali, a french creative living here... World is small, as he used to work with the Poa Plume studio I visited last february ! He proposes us to go to unusal places of the city...

He brings us to the amazing house of his friends Landry Dunand & Alisa Tang who live in a small island near the city... After a bicycle ride under 40°C, the place looks even more amazing... It is well the wood walls you see on the picture above... Hopfully their neightbour had too much mangos, and we start by sharing them... 

 

 

 

 

The house is wonderfull, just perfect...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicolas live in Bangkok for about 3 years, while Landry for 7 years. They are both graphic designers, but Landry is more a photographer. If I was looking for a very small digital camera for this trip as I hate to carry big ones, Landry took pictures with a "Camera Obscura" found in Afganhistan... An amazing huge green wood box of 20 kg !!!

 

 

Here come some shoots of Landry and of his work, from different publications he shows me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After, we went to enjoy a nice meal at the market near the house, while our daughter play with a water gun with all the childs around (we arrived in Bangkok during the Songkran, to celebrate Thai new year, everybody have huge water guns, buckets... and it is hard to not get wet !). After what we drive our bicycles in the jungle all around, with its banana trees, mango trees, coconut trees to finally arrive at the side of the island to see this view of the city... The trip start very well !

 

 

 

LEG is one of the most creative advertising agency of Paris (and so on of France...). Created 10 years ago by Gabriel Gaultier, they are famous for their unusual campaign for Eurostar, SFR or Nike. Having a crazy idea can seems easy, selling it to the client is more complicate...

Their website and philosophy speak for them :
"What costs the most in advertising is time you took to deceide",
"With a good cost-controller, the Eiffiel tour will be only 50m high" or
"For people who said nothing is possible, we remind that Russians send a dog in space 50 years ago"...

 

 

 

 

 

After exchanging email with Gregory Ferembach who work there, I ask him if I can visit while I was in Paris last week. And, the "offices" are like there projects, totally crazy, unique, unexpected... You feel more like an old British pub, or a Tim Burton movie, with its Chesterfield coachs, the large curiosity cabinet with its skulls, old books and stuffed animal heads (and even a fake stuffed human one)... And it is in this surprising place that the creative team work for clients such as Nike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most surprising is that it looks more like a young freelance designers office built into an appartment that one of the bigest and most influent agency of France. Here comes a selection of my favorit adverts and posters. I put some translation as everything is based on the concept and you must get it...

 

 

 

 

 

At 3 hours from Paris, there is London too.

 

 

London for lovers

 

 

When was the last time you visit London ?

 

 

 

Everything changes at London

 

Rock is there to change your life

 

 

The blur one is my favorit : Get back, during 3 minutes, to this magical time when you did not have 2 childs and a house credit for 25 years...

 

Oui FM is now in Le Mans or Honfleur (which are french cities)

 

 

After talking with this nice creative team, I walk around the neightbour, and found these 2 cars... I always see in American movies cliché about french cars, thinking we always use 2CV or DS like these... So I think it was really funny to see that just after visiting the leg agency.

 

 

www.leg-agency.com / also on wikipedia to know their story.

Gregory runs the "monday links", an email send each monday with his links selection / He is also behind the great C'est qui les créas

 

The Studio Poa Plume is french design company from Bordeaux. I follow them for, I have to admit, more than 10 years ! They will celebrate their 20th anniversay so, it is a long story... I love visiting studio, sharing experience and creative feeling with other designers... And when it is very nice guys (and girls) like this, time is too short...

Their studio is amazing, it is an old factory with its vintage walls and industrial lights. Seeing they are "only" 6 to work in it, they have enough space to put some nice old videos games and even a letterpress printer that sadly, can't print ! But it is a nice decoration object !

 

 

 

 

We also share the same passion for old commercial from early 1900's books. And the studio, even with big clients and budgets, always communicate with humour... an exemple... a small card which said "Found me a good design agency in the next 2 seconds or you are fired... Easy, do you know Poa Plume ?"... Better than "Our design team can found the best solution for your communication", no ? If I was a client, choice would be easy !

 

 

 

 

The big project of the team for the past years is the books of August Derrière. I already present the first book here, and the second one came out last year. It is really hard to understand the jokes from non french speaking readers, but only the design worth it... For this second edition, they even design and sell postcards and posters... An exellent exemple of designers who found a good way to have fun (and money seeing the numer of copies sold !) with their self initated projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can found all the Auguste Derrière items on the dedicated online shop / www.augustederriere.com / www.poaplume.com