GrungeCake Magazine Interview with Graphic Designer Benjamin Cutivet of Stasola Design!

Photos: Courtesy of Benjamin Cutivet

sparklehorse.com

Photos: Courtesy of Benjamin Cutivet

Blurb from YAMS:

Benjamin Cutivet, or Benjamin Stasola, has an unfamiliar design style that I connect with. Today, I dedicated my lunula design to Mr. Stasola. Don’t believe me, click here. I really enjoy his face, also. It’s welcoming. Tell your friends about the rave, Stasola is here. Stasola is a Parisian Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Photographer, Video Editor and Musician. Yuh!

GrungeCake: Who is Benjamin Cutivet as a designer?

Benjamin Cutivet: I’m a freelance graphic-designer, musician and video editor. I’m French.

GrungeCake: What is your primary instant to bad design?

Benjamin Cutivet: We have to live with it, I guess. We’re surrounded by bad design.

GrungeCake: Describe ‘good design’.

Benjamin Cutivet: Good design has to be both classy and catchy, I guess.

GrungeCake: Are you familiar with Milton Glaser? What do you think of his portfolio?

Benjamin Cutivet: Not really, I confess. I know a few works, but when I was in the art school, graphic design teaching was more based on European designers. David Carson too was adored by some of us.

GrungeCake: Who are the most adorned and praised Parisian Graphic Designers?

Benjamin Cutivet: M/M are some of the most famous French designers for sure, and even if I appreciate some of their work, I don’t think I’m really influenced by graphic designers. Most of the time, I’m more influenced by music or movies. Lately Tune Yards, Yacht, Eagle & Talon or more generally Sparklehorse, Swell or Bumblebeez are always a great inspiration for work!

GrungeCake: What is Stasola? What does its name behold?

Benjamin Cutivet: Stasola used to be the name of my first solo musical project. I used to invite many different and talented people from all around the world, to come and play in this project and each show was really unique. The link was the projection of pictures and graphic works during the shows. The last show was a musical and graphic creation around David Cronenberg’s movies. I kept the name Stasola, because it’s kinda linked to my Italian roots and it became my second last name now.

GrungeCake: Are you a freelancer or do you work for pay at a firm?

Benjamin Cutivet: I’ve been working as a freelancer for 10 years now. I mainly work as a graphic designer but I’m also working as a video editor from time to time. It would be hard to work for a company again after all these years of “freedom,” but freedom has a price and some months are harder than others are. Working as a freelancer is quite convenient when you’re a musician too and go on tour sometimes.

GrungeCake: Seemingly, your event advertisements are your strongest pieces. Do you enjoy creating this the most? Why?

Benjamin Cutivet: One of my main clients is a Parisian booking agency called Super! They’re booking European shows for all the best Indie acts and it’s a huge pleasure to create posters and flyers for Animal Collective, Jose Gonzales, or Au Revoir Simone. Plus, they totally trust me and I can do whatever I want. As a musician, creating graphic works about music is inspiring.

GrungeCake: How did you discover GrungeCake Magazine? What do you think about it?

Benjamin Cutivet: I love to explore the web to find new great websites and magazines. GrungeCake was one of these random, unexpected, and great meetings. The first time I spent a very long time reading all of the information online. I have to say; I was first caught by the name. It sounds really cool and reminds me of this Sparklehorse song; “I’m the dog that ate / your birthday cake”. That’s my vision of a “GrungeCake.”

When attempting to listen to the song Stasola mentioned, I came across this:

sparklehorse.com

Our regards to the band and the family of Mark Linkous.

GrungeCake: To date, what is your biggest accomplishment?

Benjamin Cutivet: As a man and as a designer, I would say my wonderful and lovely daughter even if it sounds cliché. I “designed” her pretty well! I also like to think the best is always to come.

GrungeCake: I notice that throughout your portfolio, there are the same hues. Is it on purpose? Does the client mind or notice it?

Benjamin Cutivet: I guess I have a “style”, like I like to use primary or flashy colors, bitmap photos or some kind of specific “effects” like this. I guess my clients are choosing to work with me because they’ve seen my previous works, and I try to adapt my universe to each new work even if it’s a really different register.

GrungeCake: How {design} smart do you think your clients are? Give a percentile.

Benjamin Cutivet: It depends on the clients, but I think my clients and people are more aware to “good design.” Since a few years, one can notice how graphic the ads became. Graphic design is increasingly popular with the new generations. Everyone wants to be a graphic designer in France. In a way, it is good, but I think this job will be soon saturated… if it is not already.

GrungeCake: Oslø Telescopic, tell me about their music. What was that project like?

Benjamin Cutivet: Oslø Telescopic is a weird collective wearing bandages on their faces and nobody really knows where they are from, maybe Norway, Iceland or Hong-Kong? Their first release was a musical and graphic trilogy. The three CDs were making a full panoramic photo. In 2002, they kidnapped Dominique A, a famous French Indie songwriter, locked him in their bunker-studio, and forced him to sing on their instrumental tracks. The Dominique Ø Project was the result, a mix of experimental pop-electro-rock.

It seems they decided to stop playing music for now, but the next generation carries on with a new killer project called Elektrisk Gønner. Watch out!

GrungeCake: What’s next for Benjamin Cutivet and Stasola Design?

Benjamin Cutivet: The best is to come! I’d really like to work with foreign clients, and designing CDs for some of my favorite bands would be really cool as well. In addition, as my English is getting worse and worse, I have to spend some time again in North America soon.

Short URL: http://grungecake.com/?p=2099