Frédéric Teschner

For how long have you been working as a freelance graphic designer ? It has been about thirteen years since I settled down in Montreuil. It matches with the time I got into an independent career. At first, I was all alone in this space which seemed huge to me, I had some trouble to fill it. As the years went by, things got into place, I started working successively with interns who reached out to me, which surprised me back then as I was quite young. This sharing was really interesting to me, and step by step, some interns stayed. I work in with people during periods of three or four years.

How did this working pattern settle itself ? I would say that it took about three years. I arrived when I was thirty and about two years later, I started to work this way. I grafted the word 'studio' to my name. I thought it would be more fair to assert in the name of the 'structure' that I was not alone. When one talk about my work, one often uses the term 'authorial graphic design'. Although I enjoy working freely, the studio work is still very important. Isolation has its limits when it comes to graphic work and the exchange ratio is also important. I like to enrich myself with the presence of younger designers, different personalities. We are in an experience sharing ratio.

Have you got clients outside France ? I would like to have clients all over the world. I have got some projects outside France: I gave some lectures abroad, I worked on some projects in Berlin (in particular with my friend Pierre Georges Gonzalez who is an architect), exhibitions in Portugal… Working for other countries, other cultures is really something I try to develop, I love discovering new horizons. It’s mostly in France that things grow. I found it pretty logical that the people with whom I work are not very far from me geographically. When I have close relationships with my colleagues, it allows me to give the best of myself. It goes by many exchanges, and these common experiences can have a link with the territory. I worked with many artists of my generation with whom I shared points of view, common universes, common affinities. I do not have a commercial relationship to work at all, hence this notion of author precisely. I am also rarely contacted by multinational companies.

Are you satisfied with your current situation ? I am not unhappy with what I did. I'm pretty happy with the turn my work took, but I am of a dissatisfied nature. I am always in search of new adventures, I am absolutely not fixed on the fate of things, including in more commercial fields. The choices I made have determined the types of orders, meetings I had, things did not happen completely by accident. All this determines a specific universe, making that people seek this type of approach in work. I can refuse projects that seem too commercial. Interview conducted in September 2015 ©ktlg