Clement Pavageau

I'm Clément Pavageau - Kokopako - a multidisciplinary designer born and raised in France. Currently working as an Interactive Art Director at Watson/DG. Discovering new ways of life, new cultures, new work process, and meeting new people are things I enjoy. During the past few years I’ve lived and worked in Paris, Stockholm, NYC and now Los Angeles. I’ve been working in the digital industry for over 5 years alongside some amazing people. I've worked at ACNE Production, Domani Studios and North Kingdom. I’ve been lucky enough to work for great brands such as Ikea, H&M, Adidas, Volkswagen, Audi, Lucas Film, Netflix, Youtube, Google, Nintendo and many more. Having fun by doing what I love is my main goal. I’m driven by innovation and new ways to design experiences.

10 questions for Clément Pavageau:

• What did you do before becoming a designer?

  I was mostly making stuff with playdough.

  During my childhood I loved to craft my own board games. I invented rules and designed board games with cardboard, paper and my colored pencils. Since those days, nothing has really changed. I still love to create and invent new things.

• Where do you turn for inspiration?

  1. A good scooter ride on the Pacific Road during sunset.

  2. Visit new places.

  3. Daily dose of Twitter links.

• Which are your favorite studios, designers or agencies?

  Unit 9, Resn, B-Reel, Hello Monday, North Kingdom, Stink Digital, Google Creative Lab, Watson DG, Merci Michel, Anonymous. I especially admire Claudio Guglieri, Brijan Powell, Anthony Goodwin, Jonas Eriksson, Tobias Van Schneider, GMUNK, not only for their work, but also for their vision.

• Is your city a good place for designers?

  I’m not a big fan of Los Angeles, but it’s definitely a great place for designers, especially Venice Beach, now called Silicon Beach. I have the feeling it’ll soon become one of the most important cities for the digital design industry.

• Which technologies are you excited about in 2015?

  I’m pretty excited about technologies which bring new ways to interact with all forms of digital content. For 2015, I can’t wait to see and play more with Oculus Rift and Myo. The support of WebGL on mobile is definitely great as well, it’ll make the web more responsive and consistent.

• Do you listen to music while you work? Describe your playlist.

  I definitely listen a lot to music while I’m working, I need it for inspiration. The music I listen really depends on the project I’m working on and the stage of the project I’m working on. For example, if I’m working on a concept I’ll listen more to calm music, whereas if I’m working on visual design or motion graphics it’ll be something more rhythmic.

  Electronic indie rock gangsta trip-hop is probably the best way to describe my Spotify playlist. I love to discover new artists, I’m always looking for the new nugget.

• Tell us your funniest anecdote related to your work.

  A couple of years ago I designed an application to share pictures with your close family. It was a side project I did just for fun. Few months after I released a case study of it, I received an email from a start up which was asking me if I could send them my psd files and the icons I designed for free for their own app. I said yes of course.

• What are you cultural influences? (Music, books, films, ideologies, etc.)

  I’m a lot into movies and TV series, as well as music. I like directors and musicians who go beyond traditional codes and bring their unique touch, vision, aesthetic. To name a few for movies : Guy Ritchie, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Alejandro González Iñárritu. And a few for music : Plaid, Lorn, Moderat, Rone, Kodomo, Mackintosh Braun, G-Eazy.

• Have you got an academic background or are you self taught?

  Print design is my background, then I switched into digital design. I finished my studies at Gobelins School (Paris) where I learnt a lot and worked with amazing passionate people.

• What do you do in your free time?

  1. Side projects

  2. Hangout with friends

  3. Scooter rides

  4. Discover and film new places

  5. Build sand castles

• Where do you see the industry in 5 years?

  Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012, it didn’t happen, so I’ll not make predictions for 2020. But from what I’m seeing nowadays and how it has evolved these past years, I think the industry will be fully responsive. Which means the use of tablets, smartphones, smart watches will be even more present and exploited. Interactive experiences on every device will be thought as one. And maybe other new smart devices will pop-up.

• Are you working on any personal projects?

  Personal projects are my jam! I need them to unleash my creativity, improve my skills and learn new things. This is when I can do exactly what I want: no clients, no budget to fit, no one to tell me how I should do this or that. This is 100% fun. Side projects reveal your true creative nature.

  I’ve recently designed the website for the last edition of Christmas Experiments with friends. We are doing it for 3 years and it’s always a lot of fun to work on and see these amazing creative coding experiments. With a developer friend, Florian Zumbrunn, we are currently working on a creative platform called Snygt. A few years ago I also started to work on an innovative superhero game which combines traditional playing cards with smartphones. It’s a huge project still in progress.

  It’s not always easy to find time because these projects are done after work and at the weekend, but I have one main rule when I’m working on side projects: if I start one, I must finish it. The worst is to start a lot of personal projects and never finish them.

• If you could give one piece of advice to newbie designers, what would it be?

  Be curious, be yourself, be passionate, work hard, and mostly, have fun! Step out from your comfort zone, it’s how you will improve your skills. Challenge yourself and don’t be afraid to fail. Stop focusing on your Dribbble followers but more on doing what you love to do as a designer. Avoid design trends as often as possible and take some risks.