Your designs have something unifying about them, I can tell when I see something from Papernoise, but I can't put my finger on what that is. Each module company has distinct and varied themes running through them. What's your approach to creating something unifying both for the company and regarding your 'style' ... if you'd say you had a style.
Good question. I believe designers shouldn't try to be artists. Being an artists is all about expressing yourself, being a designer is all about turning form into function and function into form. So what I try to do with each new client is to create a visual style that matches that their identity, help modular users in using and understanding a module's functionality and in general doing my part in creating great, playable and enjoyable instruments. But of course there's two factors that still contribute to a style of some sort: first of all, no matter how hard you try, there will always be your personality in anything you make... you just can't help it, and I admit that I'm not really trying that hard to suppress that either (laughs). The other thing is that people contact me because they have seen my work and like it. That's great since I want people to work with me precisely because we feel the same about the style and the approach to visual design, not because they need a random guy to "do the graphics". I should mention that I often work together with my wife who is also part of Papernoise. Some of the designs we made in the last years, like the Alright Chronoblob or the Sonic Potions modules, are really a combination of our respective approaches. She has a more handmade, cute and cartoonesque style (she also works as an illustrator for school and children books), which is often a great counterpart to my own style. Then it also depends if we're talking about graphic design, or illustration. As an illustrator I pursue two distinct but very defined styles. One with my "real name" and one as Poka Bjorn. The first style is what you can see in the Hexinverter promo stuff, it's inspired by retro sci-fi and horror illustration and in general is a bit more realistic and detailed. Stuff that would go well with a John Carpenter soundtrack. My Poka Bjorn stuff is more colourful, whimsical and cartoony, I like to think of it as going well with uplifting chiptune tracks, or Solvent. You can spot one or the other approach in my graphic design work as well, even where you wouldn't expect it. If you look really close, the Indian decorations I make for Olivier's modules share the same linework style as my Poka Bjorn illustrations, though admittedly the end result is very different.