Interview with Simon Delart, illustrator and graphic designer // LISAA Alumni
Simon Delart is a graduate from the BTS Graphic Design course at LISAA Nantes. He is considered to be one of the French pioneers of pixel art. Here he tells us about his career path as an international graphic designer/illustrator.
LISAA: CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE LAST PROJECT YOU WORKED ON?
Simon: The last project I worked on was an illustration for the film X-Men: Apocalypse, which will come out at the end of April. This illustration will be used for online marketing, particularly on social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME SELF-EMPLOYED?
I’m not solely self-employed. I have a permanent contract as an art director in a textile art gallery in Paris. Keeping this job gives me security and sufficient earnings to allow me to take greater risks in my other projects. It’s true that having two jobs is sometimes heavy going, but it’s the only way I have found to keep my work as an illustrator as a pleasure and not a necessity.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST PROJECT? YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT?
I think it was being able to participate in the official Star Wars exhibition. Seeing my work approved by LucasFilms and Acme Archives was like a dream come true! This adventure really gave my career a boost. And my proudest achievement would be having got to where I am today, by working hard and doing what I love above all.
Seeingmy work approved by LucasFilms and Acme Archives was like a dream come true!
Simon Delart, LISAA Nantes graduate 2007
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CAREER PATH?
I left LISAA Nantes in 2007 with a visual communications BTS qualification. After that I had two confused years. I worked for eight months in events around Saint Herblain, a town near to Nantes, and then in 2009, I managed to get my current job.
Working 39 hours a week for others brought about a kind of artistic frustration in me. As a result, I started doing my own illustrations. Between 2010 and 2012, I worked on my style and experimented with lots of techniques, to finally start working in vector art, and low poly in particular. My work was spotted on the Behance website by Gee-Art, who wrote an article about it. And in 2014, Don Thompson, the founder of the art collective Poster Posse, based in Los Angeles, invited me to join the group. Since then, via the collective, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Disney, Marvel, 20th Century Fox and to exhibit in the US, Japan and France.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE STUDENTS?
Oh, I don’t know if I’m the best person to give advice…! I would just recommend absorbing inspiration, being patient and always questioning your work.
WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PROJECTS?
At the moment, I’m taking projects as they come. I would like to do my own exhibition, on a theme different to that of pop culture. And in five years… I hope to still be doing what I love, to develop and live completely from my passion, which is illustration.
