Emeric Trahand: Update & Interview

  "Cream" for Typcut

I first remember seeing Emeric's beautiful photo montage work in 2006 or 2007. I was blown away; it was so fresh, so different. The compositions were rich, intricate; a new style, yet not a "trendy" one. I remembered thinking that this kind of thing was going to become very popular, very quickly.

In this, I was right. Scene based photo montage exploded in popularity, largely due to the work of stylistic pioneers like Trahand. However, these last few years have proved that he is no one trick pony. His skills have continued to develop, his craftsmanship reflected in the peerless polish and grace all his works seem to be effortlessly imbued with. Creating vivid campaigns for companies like Onitsuke Tiger and G-Shock, his career seems to be moving from strength to strength, paralleling the development of his abilities.

Since moving to New York, I've been fortunate to have this powerhouse creative as a close friend, and in return he has done everything possible to reaffirm the "better personal friend, worse Depthcore member" rule that so many of our artists seem to live by. He found time to complete our recent collaboration and break this cycle (thereby planting seeds of doubt regarding our friendships future), and also to answer a few questions via email.

  Campaign work for Casio "G-Shock"

Emeric Trahand New York — United States    @takeshiwan    www.stillontherun.com/

Justin Maller: Emeric! Sad that you live fifteen minutes down the road, yet we're doing our interview via email! Tell our readers a bit about yourself.

Emeric Trahand: I'm Emeric Trahand, I'm a French illustrator based in NYC. I also go by the name Takeshi. I mostly work with photomontages.

Justin Maller: Where did Takeshi come from? Seems an incongruous name for a French artist!

Emeric Trahand: I've been a huge fan of the movies directed by Takeshi Kitano younger... and my friends kind of used Takeshi as a nickname for me. So yeah, everyone had a nickname when I started getting into the digital art community, I picked Takeshi.

Justin Maller: Beautiful work on the folio update! You've got some great work in there, which job was the most fun to work on?

Emeric Trahand: Thanks Justin, I believe the best gig was the Onitsuka Tiger Campaign. It was originally an artistic collaboration they were supposed to use for online promotion. They loved the works so much that they decided to make it a full campaign with the prints in all european onitsuka stores etc... Real cool part is that I had a total freedom on the project. Thats how I decided to go for this all flower look, in reference to ikebanas and japanese culture. Also most of all, Ive always wanted to work on a sneaker campaign.

Justin Maller: The STAPLE shirt design was a great departure for you - I haven't seen much in this vein from you. Do you plan to pursue this more painterly effect further?

Emeric Trahand: I'd love to yes. I was very excited to work on a version of the iconic Staple Pigeon but truly hadn't made so many t-shirts before. I very simply had to think about what i like to see or not on a T-shirt usually. I didn't believe my 3D photorealistic style would work so well for different reasons, aesthetic ones as technical ones. I thought a painterly style would be more appropriate for this. I gave it a try and it worked out pretty well. 

Justin Maller: You've really done everything you can to make flowers your new personal trademark; where are you going to take this from here?

  Some of Emeric's trademark "flower" work.

Emeric Trahand: I wouldn't put it that way, but definitely needed an extra tool to be able to take more diversified campaigns. I was looking for a way to get out of my traditional landscape scenes with a central character, which was a bit limited creatively. I found the flower quite an ideal tool to work with, and was given a true opportunity to test it on the Onitsuka Tiger campaign.

I think Ive worked a lot with flowers lately, and I wonder if i should keep on going and try to refine my approach to that, or simply move on to another style or technique and avoid getting stuck or dry...

Justin Maller: Your commercial presence has expanded drastically in the last couple of years; has client work effected your personal output? What directions and ideas are you interested in pursuing?

Emeric Trahand: I'm trying more and more to learn or go for styles with a strong commercial potential because simply it pays the rent, but the notion of personal output is tricky. The boundaries between personal work and promotion work is very thin. I guess all I put online now is more or less aimed at getting more gigs. There is nothing really 100% personal unfortunately. Regarding my future direction, as i said before Im still wondering if I should go after more flower exploration or try to move on to different things. Im lately appealed by much simpler works, hand drawn things, with a strong personality. It is miles away from what I do, and it makes me wonder about a serious shift in my practice. 

Justin Maller: I think thats the purpose of personal work though? An avenue to pursue and explore new techniques, a way to find new ways of working we enjoy? I get what you mean though, I used to do client work to have the time and money to do personal work, but it increasingly feels the other way around now... 

Emeric Trahand: I agree with you on all this. But as you know better than anyone, being a freelancer means being involved in so many aspects of your job....  that I personally have difficulties to find enough time and mental space to dedicate to personal work sometimes. Thats the main problem really.

Justin Maller: How does Depthcore fit in for you? Why is it of any import or value in your life? 

Emeric Trahand: Well same here, it is not always easy to find time to fit another work in my schedule, and I regret it. Im getting better though, and really wanna be involved more. Especially following all that new energy that I see, with the release of this new site, the exhibition, the team meeting at OFFF...  It is refreshing.  It is also and most of all a great and humble community of talents and friends, who have pretty much been around ever since I started in digital art.

Enjoy this selection of Emeric's work, and be sure to check out his folio and blog!

Wondering why we call him "Le Cowboy"? Amazingly, Emeric creates all his pieces using the lasso selection tool!