"Then, there is the teenager life when you are 16 in 2009"

Picking through our brain to remember that formative cartoon and other childhood ephemera sometimes just results in a headscratch at best. Simon, aka s1m0nc3ll0, practically exhales these ultra-specific nostalgic references, contributing to his ultra-rich visual knowledge and deep appreciation for them. Growing up in a late 90s, early 2000s Bordeaux, the Berlin-based multi-disciplinary artist revels in the memories of French TV channels booming with creatively trashy music videos, of cars covered in spirally flower drawings, and mega-aughts surf shops of the French Atlantic coast. If these experiences are what it takes to collaborate with the likes of PinkPantheress, Zara Larsson, and Central Cee, then Simon is the perfect example of a contemporary VFX artist and graphic designer—who simply understands it all.  

Beyond Simon’s indisputable knack for vectors, and layer-heavy photoshop files, the artist carries a deep love for music. He is also a DJ and saviour of the mashup genre (imagine dreamy remixes flecked with some Imogen Heap, DJ Billybool and Playboy Carti), works on a musical archival resource for blogs, and organises LARP raves. 

We caught up with Simon to discuss his meticulous VFX work for Pink and Zara’s videos, his ultra deep knowledge on OG Facebook aesthetic groups, his current favourite internet creators, and much more. Oh, and now we can also all be in the know of the now-closed iconic Surf store hiding behind Zara’s ‘Midnight Sun.’

Hi Simon! Can you tell us where these questions find you? Are you in your usual studio space?
Hello Glamcult, I’m in Berlin, where I have lived for almost 10 years. I’m in my usual studio, a.k.a. my living room, where I manage to create my little cavern for making music and visuals.

So, you’ve worked on two major music videos for PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson in which the visuals are so strong and nostalgic. Can you tell us more about how these experiences came about?
All of this thanks to Charlie Chops, the director and main creative director for those two videos (and many great other ones). I think she’s really good at knowing how to embrace the vision and who she’s gathering to help accomplish that. 

I’ve done quite a lot of design and collages with maximalist, ultra-bright colors and details, and I love to try different aesthetics or blend them together. When I first discovered all the Facebook groups about different specific aesthetics — like the og CARI (The Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute) group, Neon Ooze, MS DOS, Amiga Cracktro culture, VHS B-Movie artworks, Edgyboys Aesthetics, McBling, High Fantasy Futurism, and many more — it was like finally someone was talking about them, where most were around during my childhood at the end of the 90s and adolescence in the mid 2000s. 

I’m getting away from the question but working on the PinkPantheress stuff was a perfect match with Charlie because she let me experiment on visuals that were always surrounding me and that I wanted to express in my way. This style now called ‘frutiger metro’ was on everything online and in real life around like 2002–2010, and as I was born in 1993, it’s like the peak of what shaped my early mind. I wouldn’t say I neither liked it back then nor I hated it. I found it really weird and strange, those maximalist combinations of shapes and colours, often not matching, but that’s how my vision evolved after some time, because it was a really experimental moment compared to what the mainstream is doing right now. 

The world going ultra minimalistic in every form of design made me so sick even back like 12 years ago when flat vector illustration became a trend. ‘Less is more’ is like the worst design sentence I’ve ever heard at school. Give me many details, give me some complex stuff, give me 200 different colours and shapes, give me chaos. My belief is that graphic design is not about information but to feel the message, if you get the vibe right, you’re going to search for the practical info anyway. 

Wow, yeah, you’ve really absorbed so many different worlds, and today’s minimalist graphic design purists can be disappointing. More specifically for your work on Pink’s and Central Cee’s music video Nice to meet you, what’s the one reference in particular that stood out for that project?
As I said previously when I grew up it was everywhere on some brands, mostly cars with the flourished plants, weird typos overlapping and being duplicated, the indie style and electro clash movements that were also in this direction of aesthetics. 

The most impactful for me was online through the old Adobe flash Websites and Flash Games, as well as music video shows that I watched on MCM, Virgin17, Europe2 TV or M6 Music, NRJ Hits, Fun TV – old French TV channels broadcasting new music videos, or even the blogs, like the MSN era. In ‘real life,’ I remember seeking the aesthetics mostly by going to the old ‘Virgin Megastore’ of my hometown, or ‘La Fnac’ or my favorite record store in Bordeaux, ‘Total Heaven’, in which I’d be looking for hours for new CDs—often based on their artworks. So I guess I don’t have one specific reference but just a melting pot of all that I ingurgitated in that era that shaped me.

And what was it actually like?
When you work on a video for two pop stars like Zara and Pink, and you are in your small room in front of your computer with a blank page, and you have the responsibility of being the maker of a graphic world for them, you are pressured by the fact that it has to be a step forward. As every artist, I guess, you always doubt yourself and your skills or visions, and that’s where I like working with Charlie because we doubt together, we try things and we move forward with decisions that I alone couldn’t decide accurately.

I don’t personally think that I push things that have never been seen before, but I try to make the most fun out of it, hoping it will resonate with the music and the viewers. I liked shaping and colliding the two worlds by making those visual backgrounds; it was a challenging chaos, but really fun. Also, growing up in Bordeaux, it’s close to the Atlantic ocean and the surf community is quite big there. I’m not a surfer myself, but I’ve been amazed by the old-school surf brand aesthetics like Oxbow, Quicksilver, Roxy, Ripcurl, Poivre Blanc, Ron Jon’s, and the stores like ‘Kanibal’ in Arcachon and the best one, which is now closed in Bordeaux, ‘Surfer’s Shop’. I used to go there with my brother, and the crazy designs for surfboards, shoes, and outfits back then for sure influenced me for some of Zara’s ‘Midnight Sun’ aesthetic. Gotta say also that nowadays most surf brands have very generic, ugly designs like minimalistic bro skater style. It’s so sad. Please hire me <3

Speaking of the design for Midnight Sun, do you think – recently –  we’ve been seeing a resurgence in fun, more maximalist, creative music videos? 

The ‘Midnight Sun’ work was super fun too, an explosion of colour, and in a way, a naive silliness in the song and character of Zara that I really relate to. I think people have always made amazing and creative fun music videos of all sorts—from cinematographic high-budget to low-budget DIY multimedia sick stuff. But it’s true that it’s become more visible these last few years. I guess mostly because the video media itself became more present with TikTok than it was with the “picture format” of Instagram.

Can you give us the rundown of who’s inspiring you?
As well, there are crazy creatives — like lauzza, svbih, gobluna, jelanijmiller, heartsh6kr, g2grl, brthr, lilian_hrdn, nohluhn, hiverblooms, ein.garden, mario roudil, oseanworld, mi_m1_1 — who are some of my favourite recent directors and editors building their own styles and stories. There are so many people doing crazy good things with video now. I just saw these articles and videos saying how ‘music videos are dead.’ Wtf, it’s more alive and exciting than ever!! That’s also one of the reasons to quit and/or diversify the platforms we are currently into that are too easily shaping things for us and adventure ourselves in the research of the hidden hives of the internet corners.

What’s something  you’re obsessed with right now that only graphic designers would understand?
I always loved collage and mashup culture. I use a lot of free PNGs of different stuff, and also create my own with random objects around me, and try to compose a new world out of them. I also love using the Tao plugin in After Effects to create abstract geometric shapes. It’s kind of close to how to create the ‘Metalheart’ style with the organic blob meeting geometrical lines and curves, then adding some duplicator effects and after extracting the parts I like to create more accurate composition for a visual. I would never stop saying that but After Effects is a great tool to work on ‘static image’ too, there are so many possibilities. And while most would say ‘a tool doesn’t define you,’ I’d say Photoshop and After Effects are my favorite ones to explore visual motifs. I also love to insert easter eggs or like hidden subliminal small funny stuff in some videos I’m working on.

What are three references from your childhood that still strongly inspire your work today and do you remember what your first iteration at making graphics was?
Firstly, music, DVD stores. Mostly the early Internet, videogames, and TV have shaped me. But then, I think the whole environment was still under trends and the research of music in places like ‘Virgin Megastore’, ‘La FNAC’ and other small shops in Bordeaux also shaped it where I was also influenced by movies and especially DVD menus and visual artwork. I still love to collect DVDs of weird movies or like the oldschool ‘limited editions’ that were magnified by embossed logos, shiny covers and many great details like a BTS booklet inside with pictures and exclusive visuals.

Then, there is the teenager life when you are 16 in 2009. In the last 2 years, the resurgence of the 2006-2012 era made me think that it was my peak time as a teenager/young adult. It impacted me in many ways but I keep thinking about those cars with the flower drawings, the cereal toys, or objects like the iPod that I never left, and growing up to many cartoons and shows like ‘Totally Spies’, ‘Code Lyoko’, and ‘Charmed’, for example. It was also a special time for fashion with a mix of the indie electro and rock, shaped by the Kitsuné Maison Compilations, ‘Alive 2007’ by Daft Punk, the birth of big new festivals, the Swag era, and soundcloud rap. All that fashion from the indie rockers, Tektonik, to R&Bling, and Vaporwave-ey stuff are all coming back in style, which were part of my life. And without remembering many particular things, I guess just living in this era makes me embrace it and enjoy redoing it now as part of a tribute. On another hand, I was always into fantasy novels and it inspired me a lot for seeking storytelling and worldbuilding in my work and art.

And finally, I keep remembering this one club in Bordeaux from this era, ‘Le 4 Sans’. It was near the train station and it was probably the club where I had my first nightclub experience. I saw Mr.Oizo, early Calvin Harris, mostly all the Ed Banger crew I was a fan of, The Bloody Beetroots, Crookers, and so on. There was also the ‘Skins Party’ — yes, kinda based on the TV Series — it was really trashy, the sound was so loud and saturated, and you were photographed with your friends by the official night photographer from Sonlight or Tillate. For me, it was also a time of insecurities and teenage social pressure, but I loved music. It was what it was, and the whole visual flyers and Facebook pages back then also shaped some visual keys in my head.

I was always attracted to music first and then came the visuals. My first real graphic experiments were probably when I first got my own laptop in 2012, and I was into the vaporwave/seapunk internet movement. I was also a big fan of DIS Magazine and that’s how the collage experiments got into me. I just discovered how to use Photoshop and went crazy by trying all the effects rather than using it for retouching photos.

What’s an unconventional physical or digital space where you do your research?
I’m currently archiving music blogspots I collected to make a big resource. I love blogs and how people are dedicated to specific passions, and it’s a good way to find music and art out of the algorithm, as well as visual archives. Also, the CARI Discord is a great place for finding crazy archives. And for a physical place, each time I come back to my old bedroom in Bordeaux, I find crazy stuff that I accumulated along the way.

Finally, do you have any dream collaborations or projects for the future?
I’ve always wanted to do design for freeride ski brands, from the skis to the shoes, helmets, and gloves. Or any kind of extreme sports brands — tuning cars, Motocross, BMX — because there are really unusual product designs and shapes you have to deal with, and you can get so many details on them! As well, imagining someone getting to do crazy things with them, that’s amazing. 

Otherwise, I’d say that I’d love to work with anyone with interesting ideas and a kind heart. And I would love seeing my creative friends being able to live off of it and being well paid for what they do. Freelancing is tough and many people think that because I worked for PinkPantheress, and Zara Larsson, I should be overbooked by now, but nothing really happened except maybe 60 more followers and some cute messages. Freelancing is a never-ending stress and freedom at the same time, but I chose it and wouldn’t go back.

Any last words?
I would love to take the opportunity to s/o my friends from my hometown doing amazing things and that helped me through many things, @yuurigore (musician/producer/3D), @lokik_7 (musician), @denis.dedieu (comedian/musician), @beladrys_the_cyber_slayer (website builder/set designer/roleplay), @pdee2morte (sound and light tech/artist), @djdonnaaa (producer/DJ/illustration), @pakun.jaran (producer/DJ/booker), @samia_lamri_ (director/scriptwriter/photographer), @charlottepouyaud (director), @eliot7ee (CGI/3D)…

And big love to my family and friends and everyone surrounding and inspiring me <3