About me
Profile
I'm Claire, a 25 year old French graphic designer and typographer currently living and working in Prague, Czech Republic. I co-run Op45 Creative Design Agency with musician and designer Darren Johnson.
Born in Paris, I grew up in various countries in Europe and the Middle East before studying art and design for 4 years in the UK. I have since lived and worked in Brussels, York and now Prague, co-founding Op45 in late 2008 to which I dedicate my full time.
Design
My main interest is exploring the visual aspect of words and language: its relation to the subject, conveying the nuances of speech & meaning, impact on communication, perception by different people and cultures... I strongly believe in the importance of simplicity and subtlety as ways to stand out in an increasingly loud and crowded modern visual world. I love minimalism in design, when it's done well, and functional, clean design that also has warmth and a strong sense of personality.
Skills & Interests
I love drawing typography, whether quick pencil sketches, elaborate scripts or experimenting with expressive typography, and a lot of my favourite work revolves around this. I always keep various sketchbooks with letters, word drawings and general typography sketches & research.
Also very interested in print and book design, I've participated in artist book fairs and self published a bilingual typography book called Painting With Words (hardback first printed March 2008 and subsequent paperback edition in Feburary 2009).
Projects
As well as Op45 work with a range of clients, I always have a lot of personal projects on the go, from one-off typography pieces to long term ongoing projects that often span months (or years). Things I'm currently working on include the beginnings of a hand-lettered script typeface, an ongoing sans serif typeface design and starting to learn Python for FontLab. Eventually, I hope to release a extensive font-family, design and write a new book, set up a darkroom and own a letterpress machine.
Experience & Education
| Ongoing | Op45 Creative Design Agency Co-owner, full time |
| 2008 - 2009 | Design Agency — Brussels, Belgium In-house graphic designer, full time |
| 2005 - 2008 | BA (Hons) Graphic Arts & Design — Leeds, UK First Class Honours |
| 2004 - 2005 | BTEC Foundation in Art & Design — Canterbury, UK Distinction |
About this website
This website acts as my online personal portfolio. While it showcases a variety of work and much of it is client-based as well as conceptual, the majority of the commissioned work I do with Op45 is collaborative in nature and therefore best suited to our design agency portfolio.
The current version of this portfolio was designed and built in November 2010. It is the 4th re-design since I made the first version in early 2009. It is best viewed in Firefox & Safari. See the colophon for technical information.