People ↔ Design ↔ Code

Most recent project:

Curator App

Role: co-founder; Promotion, Marketing, Online Tools, Web Development and Data Analysis

Update: Curator has now been acquired by Pinterest

“Awesome Curating App Perfectly Mashes Up Pinterest, Evernote, and Instagram” — Wired.com

Curator is the No.1 tool for the creative process. From the first fragment of an idea to presentation. Simple, fast, powerful.

For the past two years, I have been in charge of promoting the app on the internet and in the Apple App Store; I have been nurturing the various electronic presences (website, blog, app store page, social media, inbound link). I also assisted with design, planning and development strategy. Those efforts lead to Curator receiving a wide appreciation from Creatives around the world and the repeated promotions in Best New Apps section in the Apple App Store, and features in the brick-and-mortar Apple Stores.

I have been gathering and analysing facts around users’ experience and their uses. I helped plan its development tree, develop content and promotion. I designed, developed and deployed the Safari Extension, worked on integrations with the backend. I have extended the website from a single page to a resource oriented website for Creatives, optimised for conversions and search engine optimisation.

Curator: Collect, Organise, Present
Curator on the app store

Design+Code commissions for clients

  • 2005-2014 web design/developments
    in collaboration with various design studio and branding agencies: Hi-Res, Åbäke, Ok-Rm, Damien Poulain, Digital Club (Marc Kremer & Thomas Eberwein), Material Organisation.
  • 2014 “Just William”
    client: William & Sons
    agency: Material Organisation
    e-commerce and branding website, luxury company offshoot from William & Sons (London), for Material Organisation communication agency.
  • 2011-2012 “We See Beauty“
    client: Manna (NYC) web design and digital consulting, worked with Haptic Thoughts (London) and Sputnik (NYC).I helped establish the core web design templates. I worked with strategists and art directors to create the communication and promotion tools. We developed the content architecture, the navigation for the whole site, and a series of interactive templates conveying the brand values and aesthetic throughout.
  • 2010 “Engine26“
    MOMA (NYC) website for artist Daniel Hirschmann (Technology Will Save Us) presenting his interactive installation. Team work with Daniel Hirschmann and Karsten Schmidt (PostSpectacular). The website presented a simple interface to navigate the very large of images generated by the installation: colours, date, type of shapes, etc.
  • 2010 “FOUNT BOOK“
    editorial, design, production
    anniversary limited edition book for St Bride Library, publishing and republishing of the library’s archives, in collaboration with Jackson Lam (HATO press) and Åbäke.
  • 2009 “The Incidental”
    website and social networks tools
    for the British Council - a newspaper during London Design Festival, in collaboration with Daniel Charny (From Now On), Åbäke, Bannock+Hill, (and Berg for the previous edition) (UK). Nominated for Designer of the Year 2010 (Design Museum, Londres UK) in the Interactive category as part of the publication.
  • 2008 “Domus Futura”
    typography prototypes for the architecture magazine Domus (Italy). A character inspired by the act of compressing data. It is based on removing information in the character page, while searching the extreme limit where the letter form is not legible anymore.
  • 2005-2012 Daft Punk
    custom hosting (website, video)
    deployed and managed specific hosting solutions for Daft Punk. We prepared, deployed and managed a custom made server solution to serve the band's promotional videos without interruption.
  • 2004-2009 Kitsuné
    website design and development communication, collaboration with Åbäke. Custom CMS development, multiple iteration of website and pages, optimisation, campaign via newsletter.
  • 2004-2006 Maison Martin Margiela
    website design and development for the fashion and luxury brand. Developed an experimental website aligned with the spirit of the brand. It used a custom made CMS using simple files and folders to build pages.

Core Skills

Art direction, Design thinking, Interaction Design, Concept Development, Strategic Thinking, Programming for the web.

  • Design thinking and research
  • Web Technology & Programming
  • Digital Product Design
  • Digital Strategy & Marketing
    audit, planning, development, deployment
  • Promotion and Growth
    for small businesses and startups, online and offline
  • Evaluation mechanism, data analytics
  • Architecture Optimisation
  • Organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO),
    Technical Marketing and App Store Optimisation (ASO)
  • Workshops/Teaching
    creative process development, knowledge sharing and nurturing growth mindset
  • Technology monitoring
  • Combination of online and offline approaches
    through UI/UX design and real life events
  • A kind and human touch

Get in Touch

Organisational: collaborative work in small team and studio, dedicated to make things happen, reliable under pressure.

Technology: Javascript, PHP, MySql, JQuery, HTML5, Wordpress, Node, E-Commerce, REST/SOAP API, Server/Hosting and Domain Name managementLanguage: french, english.

Design & Food projects, Real life interactions

art direction, organisation, promotion, production

  • 2013 “Perfume, Sir?”, pepper, perfume and design with Paris+NYC based perfumer LeLabo, LDF.
  • 2011-2013 “Bar Alto”, London (UK) and Atlanta (US) Design Festival.
  • 2012 “Freshly Cut”, a 200 seats temporary restaurant for the Kortrijk (BE) Interieur Design Biennale; concept, design, planning, execution.
  • 2010 “A Dinner with DesignMarketo and friends” at the Barbican Centre London (UK).
  • 2010 “FoodMarketo”, in collaboration with Apartamento Magazine: Fruit and Vegetables, Salone Del Mobile, Milan april 2010; followed by: Coffee and Friends, London Design Week, Londres sept 2010.

Experience

  • 2014-2016 co-founded Curator & Co - Curator is a productive app for visual creatives; regular amongst the Best New App on the iTunes App Store; described by Wired magazine US as the best mix in between Pinterest, Evernote and Instagram.
  • 2008-now co-founded DesignMarketo (UK) - events company: using food and design to create networking and promotion events through direct interactions with customers.
  • 2005-now co-founded Electronest (Switzerland & UK) — web design company: developing technology for design & communication purposes, developing new concepts and sustainable approaches for projects on the internet.
  • 2004-now Freelance graphic design / web design / web development: Hi-Res, Åbäke, Ok-Rm, Material Organisation.
  • 1996-1999 Internships and freelance work in product design, architecture and interior architecture: Mathilde Bretillot/Frédérique Valette, Jean Marie Massaud, Ronan et Erwan Bouroullec.

Teaching

  • 2010-now workshops in Digital Cultures/Interactions at ALBA Beirut (Lebanon)
  • 2013-2014 visiting lecturer Digital Cultures at Westminster University (London), course: visual communication and illustration.
  • 2013 “Design entrepreneurship” workshop at Bois Buchet (Vitra Design Summer School, France).
  • 2010-2011 mentoring at Central St Martins (London) course: Creative Practice for Narrative Environments.
  • 2005-NOW workshops and talks: RCA (London), Écal (Switzerland), La Cambre (Bruxelles), Merz Akademie (Stuttgart), Camberwell College of Art (London), ALBA (Beirut, Lebanon), NABA (Milan).
  • 2002-2004 teaching-assistant at Écal, with Akinori Oishi (illustration), etoy.ai (net art), Fabric.ch (digital architecture), Francois Rappo (typography).

Publications

  • Work featured in multiple publications, amongst which: Écal Graphic Design, Altitudes (Gestalten Verlag, Berlin), Disclosures (Gasworks), Regular - Graphic Design Today (Gestalten Verlag, Berlin), Quotations (Japan) and other magazines/blog.
  • Design & Editorial: R-Echos, 2004-2013, multi-medium publication project (printed publication, web, talk, exhibition).
  • Writing: electronic culture columns in Dapper Dan - Men’s Fashion & Philosophy - Athen, Greece.Initially published in Dapper Dan issue 7, and titled “Code is Poetry”—Like poetry, code describes the shape of the world. gather some thoughts on design, software and how we can challenge status-quo. I'm a long term Wordpress user but I remain critical of some aspects; I also like to develop custom solutions like this very site, which is published/updated through Markdown and is customised for rapid loading.

Education

  • 2004 Media and Interaction Design MA, Écal Lausanne (Switzerland).
  • 2002 Typography and Visual Communication BA, Écal Lausanne (Switzerland).
  • 1999 Product Design DNSAP, Esad Reims (France).

Get in Touch