Contact

Surfaces
Graphic design studio

Jane Secret, Nicolas Millot & Faustine Lemens

37, rue Aristote – 59800 Lille, France
bonjour [ at ] surfaces-studio.com

+33 (0)6 79 94 71 35 Jane
+33 (0)6 33 19 22 17 Nicolas
+33 (0)6 42 28 31 31 Faustine

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About

Surfaces is a graphic design studio that creates unique, multi-faceted and long-lasting graphic objects from commissioned work, with a research approach and radical sensibility.

Since its inception in 2016, the studio has focused on the choice of media (materials, inks, binding and finishing, etc.) and the relevance of usage (ergonomics, hierarchy of information, experience, etc.), exploring fields of graphic and plastic investigation that convey both meaning and singularity.

This singularity is found in response to a commissioned situation – always unique – echoing a specific context: social, cultural, or economic.

If the graphic designer is ultimately no more than a translator or an interpreter (perhaps precisely somewhere in the spectrum between both?), transforming the problems of a context into a graphic object, then dialogue and the definition of a common language with the client become crucial factors in achieving the simplicity of evidence.

We aim to explore the functional, aesthetic and emotional potential of each project by confronting different technical processes (printing, binding, finishing, as well as digital processes) and pushing the boundaries of what is traditionally considered possible.

Based on our technical expertise in printing and fabrication, we postulate that the process of document production is at least as important as the graphic forms that compose it, if not more so. When the process is well designed, the resulting forms are appropriate.

This approach allows graphic forms to emerge that escape standardisation, provoking our own surprise and, we hope, the public's as well.

As part of this process, we also co-founded the Combo Combo festival (→ More details)

Internship

We welcome students (3rd year bachelor / master) for paid internships lasting at least 2 months.

Unfortunately, due to the large number of applications we receive, we cannot respond to all of them.

Many thanks to the students who have worked with us in the past: Alexandra Rio, Nathalie Dupasquier, Sophie Leduc, Justine Herbel and Roxanne Anèse.

Combo Combo Festival

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Opening of Combo Combo No. 4. Photos: Rémi Debreu.

In 2018, Surfaces co-founded the Combo Combo graphic design festival in Lille with Atelier Bien-Vu and Rémi Gaudet.

Since its inception, the festival has taken on a variety of formats, including exhibitions, conferences, open workshops and print image fairs, with a focus on contemporary graphic design practice. 

All these events are structured around an exhibition of posters designed for the occasion by eight regional, national and international graphic designers (or collectives). The eight posters are presented in a scenographic display and are available for sale (at the events and online) to help fund the organisation of the event.

In addition to these original posters – and this is the special feature of our proposal – we are presenting a series of original posters: the result of a graphic experiment bringing together the designers' productions by superposing layers of colour. The posters are printed by Lézard Graphique ( our sincere thanks to them for their support and guidance).

As is often the case in our approach, the production process is decisive.

Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 1Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 2Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 3Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 4Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 5
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Printing process in the Lézard Graphique workshop in Brumath.

To talk briefly about the printing technique: each graphic designer is assigned a pair of colours (from among two possibilities). By arranging and overlapping the colours, it is then possible to print all the posters on a single sheet (118.5 × 175 cm).

Alternating the printing of certain colours was then enough to produce original poster combinations that mixed the graphic designers' work. The result is six combinations of two colours per pair of posters, for a total of twenty-four unique posters.

Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 1Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 2Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 3Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 4Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 5Combo Combo Festival / Image No. 6
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During the printing process, an additional layer (the ‘black layer’) is added to the posters to generate the communication documents. Photos: Rémi Debreu.

The poster printing template also enables us to produce communication documents for the event (two Decaux posters, eight 59 × 87.5 cm posters, and thirty-two different edition covers).

A risography-printed edition – somewhere between an exhibition catalogue and a carte blanche – is also published, listing all the posters produced as well as exclusive texts written by a guest author (philosopher, art centre director, writer, etc.).

Over the years, we have invited both established and emerging graphic designers to take part, with the aim of achieving a balanced representation of genres and territories. The first four editions of Combo Combo brought together more than fifty graphic designers from twelve different countries.

→ More info: Combo Combo

Exhibitions

Publications

Workshops

Lectures

Categories

Credits

This website is designed and developed by Surfaces using the Processwire open source CMS. The typefaces – Suisse Int'l and Suisse Works – are published by Swiss Typefaces. Photos by Surfaces unless otherwise stated.

Special thanks to Sylvain Courbois, Paul Tahon and Armin Zoghi.