Fran6 aka Francis Chouquet on falling in love with lettering

In May, we’re unlocking the power of words and lettering with graphic designer Fran6 aka Francis Chouquet. After years of working for clients and other companies, he broke out as an independent artist and hasn’t looked back since. His love of making endless lettering combinations and nature are the driving forces behind his work. For this collab, Francis joined forces with 6-year-old Abi from Lombok. Together, they created a nature-inspired illustration all about home. 

Discovering lettering through Indiana Jones

Fran6 is an artist who can trace his discovery of art all the way back to his teenage years. Back then, he was inspired by Indiana Jones posters and wanted to get creative. 

“I was a big fan of everything adventure or sci-fi related. Indiana Jones was such an inspiration that at some point I wanted to become an archeologist. But I also spent a lot of time drawing. I remember having the movie poster in my bedroom. It felt natural for me to draw something from it and I think I was more confident to sketch out the title. It was dynamic. I loved it.”

From that point on, his trajectory was clear. Since that Indiana Jones poster, Francis has been fascinated by two things: art and words. 

As a French speaker, you might first think that he prefers to create art in French, so you might be surprised to hear: “English is my preferred language in my work and also in my communication. I always felt like the internet allows us to reach the rest of the world, so why would I do my work only in French? English also feels easier for me to express ideas, while French is trickier.”

That’s not to say that he doesn’t enjoy experimenting with different languages! In fact, he shares: “Last year I did a training on font design at Practica Program, where I discovered Eastern European languages, and I must say I fell in love with some of them.”

Finding beauty in imperfection

Besides lettering, another signature feature of Francis’ style is his bold playfulness. He explains: “I try to add a kind of weirdness. So I would say that my lettering is a bit strange but fun and it all goes together with my illustrations.”

When talking about his sources of inspiration, Francis is quick to reply: “It all started with Saul Bass, Charles Eames, and Alexander Girard. I fell in love with cutouts, warm colours, and overlaps. I’m fortunate enough to live near the Vitra factory and Design Museum, which is where I spend a lot of time to get inspired.”

Speaking of creative inspirations, Francis goes on to clarify what it is about those artist that he admires so much:

“Saul Bass’s style is all about imperfection to me. He is the best designer who was able to communicate emotions through rough design. Imperfection is what makes art interesting.

“I did logo design for a few years and at some point I felt bored with what I was doing. I was trying to reach perfection in my work but it was killing my love for lettering. Then I discovered mid-century modern design and Saul Bass and my life was changed.”

Another big source of inspiration for Francis is nature. He often stresses the therapeutic effects that being in nature have on his mental health. 

“Nature is cheaper than therapy. It sounds like a joke but I’m serious. Therapy can be great but going out for a walk on a daily basis can restore our well being in the midst of this crazy world. I try to go in the forest every day, channel my inner Henry Thoreau, and take things slowly. This is usually when I get my best ideas. I really feel like we need time in nature every day and too many people are lost in their crazy lives.”

With such a playfully eclectic style, Francis is also engaged in teaching the next generation of artists. He has his own course of Domestika and organises collage lettering workshops. While talking about his students, he shares: 

“I want them to learn fun things, especially in my collage workshops. They are there for people to learn an activity that is fantastic for their mental health. As for the lettering workshops, again, I try to share the way I do lettering and how others can also play with letters.”

Collabing with children and rediscovering home

Francis agrees that children’s creativity is inspiring. “I think they have the best creativity. It’s pure.” It should come as no surprise, then, that he has worked with children before. “I regularly do workshops in schools and I even developed a font with a school where each child designed a letter.” 

Given Francis’ inspiring art style and passion for nurturing creativity, it was a no brainer for us to reach out to him. Luckily, the excitement was mutual. He exclaims: “Oh, I was really happy. I thought about contacting you several times too, but you know, time flies so this time the planets were aligned.” Given that Face This was also on Francis’ radar, a collab was simply inevitable. 

For this merch drop, Francis was paired with Abi from the SDN 4 Batu Putih school in Lombok. For the theme of ‘makes you feel like home’, Abi drew a picture of his house. Francis shares that he wanted to immerse himself in Abi’s world as much as possible.

“I wanted to incorporate his drawing into the final illustration as best as I could, so I took the home he drew and tried to invent a world around it.” 

Francis goes on: “I am used to creating illustrations around nature and villages. So it was easy to work with Abi’s drawing. I also added some lettering to it so everybody understands what it is all about.”

Of course, we can’t talk about Abi’s drawing without talking about the central theme: home. From Abi’s drawing, it looks like his house is at the centre of what home means to him. Francis adds: “It makes me want to visit it. He must be proud of it.” 

Francis admits that home has a similar meaning to him as well. “I get homesick every time I travel, so for me, home and family are important. It is a safe place.”

After a collab filled with bold shapes and fun lettering, Francis reflects on what he has learned from this experience. “Working with a drawing a child did can be a challenge because you want the child to recognise his drawing in your work. So that was important to me, to stay as near as possible to what Abi wanted to share.”

Francis has already made a great contribution towards helping Abi’s school, but as a final message to his collab partner, he would like to say: “Hey Abi, I hope you liked our collab and that this feels like your home. Take care!”