INTERVIEW-In The Pool

Hello In The Pool. Can you introduce yourself?

We are Géraldine and Louise from the In the pool art studio based in Paris and recently in Barcelona. We both created the studio in 2015, but we have since then become a large family of graphic designers, photographers, motion designers, 3D artists, designers, illustrators, web designers etc. We work in a wide variety of sectors all over the world.

How did you come to do this job?

Louise's father is an art director and her mother is a painter, mine is an opera director and my mother is a costume designer, we have always been immersed in the world of creation.

Our studies have allowed us to do a little bit of everything in the art direction profession. We then understood that this profession allowed us to express ourselves on an infinite number of different media and fields, it suited our desire to touch everything.

What is your background?

After high school we went to the same school: Esag Penninghen in Paris. We hated each other at first! And then in our second year we discovered that we both had the same desire: to give meaning to our creations by going through secondary school and humour. We wanted to live our job with lightness and to know why we got up every morning. For us it seemed incompatible with having a boss and a set schedule.

So we decided to create In the pool the summer after our graduation. We were very lucky because it went really fast! We met some great people, clients who trusted us and who are still loyal to us!

Why did you choose to go and work in Barcelona for a few months?

To change perspectives, to take risks, to see how people manage to create cool things there and to change pace.

We were more than welcome here, we found a house in the heights of Barcelona that we have completely refurbished.

We're thinking of organising exhibitions there when the situation allows us to. Then it's a very cosmopolitan city, you meet people from all over the world! So it's very enriching, we feel boosted at all levels!

What are your daily inspirations?

We usually start working quite late in the morning, we spend a lot of time walking around (especially in Barcelona that we discover every day!).

In our walks, we can find as much inspiration in a great exhibition as in a neighbourhood kebab. We observe, we listen to people, and we talk to each other a lot.

And of course we won't lie to you, we're like all graphic designers in the world: we spend far too much time on Instagram and Pinterest!

What projects are you currently working on?

Especially on digital, among others we're retyping the image of Believe Musique, that of an archi studio in Switzerland and we're doing the visual identity of Traphic!

We usually work a lot in events and music. The current situation has turned everything upside down but we still manage to have a lot of fun, it's just different!

And then we always have personal projects on the side: for example we have just imagined the visual identity of a cheese maker we called "Un crémier nommé désir" (A creamer named desire) around the erotic vision that the French have of cheese.

There we are also working on the identity of an imaginary music festival where we would involve all our favourite artists, even dead ones...

Do you have any favourite t-shirts?

Yes : those we find in second-hand shops, often in the pubs for grill restaurants or in absurd motels in the back of the US.

And finally, have you recently fallen in love with film, music or literature?

"The time machine" 1960 version, "Malevil" by Robert Merle and ESG, a no-wave Bronx girlband from the 80s.

Géraldine also had a huge crush on Billie Eilish's Tiny Desk session but shhhh, don't tell!

Thanks Geraldine and Louise! You can find In The Pool's work on their website and on Instagram!