The Dutch-French-German-Spanish duo create artwork, live performances, installations, exhibitions and publications.
An Interview with Design Duo Julien Martin
ArtSteem: Can you explain in more detail how the project and body of work came to be?
Martin: When TwoPoints.Net wasn’t yet a design studio, but a platform for collaborative art projects, I developed with my friend Joachim Müller an online game we called “chinese whispers” and it worked exactly like the children's game “chinese whispers,” but visually. One could download an image from TwoPoints.Net, change it, and upload it again. ...Ten years later, Julien and I revived the game and had visual conversations through illustrations we drew on our smartphones.
ArtSteem: You kicked Julien Martin off in such a simple and brilliant fashion. The playful, carefree approach to minimal graphic design totally appealed to me. Yet, from the beginning it all felt so considered. Did you consciously settle on your current style - was it intentional? Or, was it an evolution? How did it come about?
Martin: Hahaha, no, there is nothing planned about JM, except of course the limitations we gave ourselves, just to use the iPhone or iPad. Our style just naturally evolved. We inspire and motivate each other a lot. It really is surprising to see when Julien comes up with something I didn’t know was possible with the (sometimes) crappy apps we use, and this then motivates me to try something new myself, which would surprise Julien. We do not want to plan our future, but there are lots of things we would love to do, but do not have the money or contacts to be able to do so right now. We would love to work more with fashion, interior and industrial designers to apply our graphics to objects or spaces. We see a lot of potential in this direction.
Who knows, maybe the mighty STEEM network will help us to find the right people to work with. Where do we come from? I don’t know, and I am not sure I want to know. Our motivation comes from the things we haven’t done yet.
ArtSteem: Both of you are incredibly productive. How do you split your time between your studios and JM?
Martin: We do not think about what we do when. If we would, JM would become a job. We just work on JM when we have the time and feel like it. The good thing about being two is that the other can take over if one is too busy.
ArtSteem: As fellow graphic designers, what do you think of Steem? What do you love about it? What don’t you love? If we gave you STEEM for a day or a week and said you can do anything you want to it, and you had the resources to do it, what would you do?
Martin: Steem is most important social network. The crowd you were able to gather at Steem is great. Apart from that, the way the content is displayed is great. Huge images and a pretty design which helps the works to shine. What I would change if Steem would be mine for a week? Nothing...but I might revive “Chinese Whisper 2.0” as a side-page of Steem for everyone who loves a visual battle. ;)
