Interview: Adeline Mollard

Adeline Mollard is a designer working in Berlin, Germany. View Adeline’s work here and here.

What is your design background?

I studied at ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland. It’s where I developed my love for book and editorial design. The teachers there were all very passionate and rigorous in their approach to every kind of design project. First think first! The concept was more important than any kind of aesthetic. I soon got fascinated by books and magazine design and decided that they would be my favorite playground. Alongside my studies, Philippe Egger and I started “Fageta” in 2003. It was a good way to do our own stuff without the pressure of the ECAL structure or of being good or bad. We were very spontaneous doing projects for festivals, friends or galleries, mostly posters or identities. Working for friends or for small creative associations gives you more liberty and allows you to experiment more. I think you can really feel that in our work from back then. It’s always been conceptual but also kind of “in your face”. I also did an internship with Claudia Brandenburg in New York in 2005. I stayed 4 months in the city and that’s when I started the book “From Mr. Green to Adam” about the antifolk music community. After school  I did 6 months as an assistant at ECAL and finally moved to Berlin.

What inspires you as a designer?

It’s hard to name specific things. Our brain is getting flooded with so many images, sounds and feelings during the day without even noticing. I collect everything and let it work itself out during the night. That’s my trick! I often have the feeling that ideas clarify during sleep. That’s perhaps because I’m a somnambulist. I often wake up the next morning and know exactly how to continue a project or how to design a page. That’s why I like to start work early. There is a kind of calm before noon that pushes me.

Also at the moment I think the spring feeling inspires me too. Berlin is finally getting warmer after 5 months of dark and very very cold days. People are outside taking time enjoying the days. It feels like a new born city.

I also often look at work by other designers like everyone else, I guess. It’s important to know what’s going on in the field just only to not repeat it but to start to rethink it. I love the work of Aude Lehmann, Irma Boom, Julia Born or Jonas Vögeli and the way they handle the design of books.

You won the Fribourg Art Grant in 2009. What was that experience like?

That was a great time. I really needed a break from commercial jobs and this grant allowed me to think about my own practice as a designer. What do I want to say, what would be my dream project? Anyway working without any restrictions is kind of frightening too. You don’t have any excuses anymore. If the final result isn’t good, you can’t blame anyone else. I worked 6 months on a personal book project in an atelier in Prenzlauer Berg. I had a big white cube kind of space allowing any kind of creation or even bike races or ping pong tournaments. I tried to be experimental and find a totally new way of working. Having time to think, to experiment, to go to museums and galleries, or just to organize my day as I wanted. More time to let me be spontaneous without worrying of any kind of schedule. Stress or pressure weren’t the main motivation factors anymore.

What has winning the grant allowed you to do?

I was very interested by this typical Berlin topic: “I’m a foreign artist and I came to Berlin to live from my art.”  I wanted to meet some of them and see how they live and what being an artist in Berlin is truly like. I met 20 people in their ateliers and made little interviews and portraits. It was interesting to see the connections between them. To see how big the network is. I’m working now on the book layout and the texts. I will probably release the book this summer.

You have worked in a few different cities. How do you think your surroundings have influenced your design?

I think that I’m much more active and spontaneous since I have moved to Berlin. The city gives me energy. I love the eclectic mix of people here — there are junkies drinking beer at 9 am beside mothers with their children, Muslim people doing their prayers or tourists coming back from parties.

But also I think Berlin has a kind of laziness that I like. This city allows itself everything and doesn’t care about manners. It’s a very self-confident city. It’s perhaps because it went through many hard times. People here just want to enjoy what they now have without worrying too much. I had to learn that. Learn to be a little bit more “easy-living”. Being from Switzerland where everything is very politically correct, I feel like it’s a treat for myself.

(Cover illustration by Floyd Schulze)

How often do you work by yourself compared to collaboratively? Which do you prefer?

I like the balance. After some months working by myself, I needed to sit with friends and start a new collective project. At the beginning of this year, we went with 6 people to La Chaux-de-Fonds to give a workshop at the EAA, school of art and design. It was such a nice week. It gives you some energy to go back to your own work and rethink everything. I also always really enjoy the production phase of the OPAK magazine. It comes out every 4 months and we always look forward to seeing each other and starting the new issue. We usually do it in a very short but very intensive period of time.

You have done some excellent work while at Gestalten as both a designer and as an art director, how do those experiences differ?

Be a designer by Gestalten often means to be co-editor of the book too. The thematics of the books are so close to what we studied as a designer, that it comes naturally — we are involved in the research, the editing process and the concept too. It’s a really nice thing. It makes the book feel more like yours. You can also easily switch from concept to layout and make them fit together in a nice way. Designing books for designers isn’t easy but it’s an exciting challenge. You know that the people who will look at the book, will not only look at the content but also and perhaps even more at its envelope.

What is your dream design project?

I would love to start a magazine for women.
Something between “Gentlewoman” and a “Nieves Fanzine” kind of magazine.