ABOUT ME

I have split up that very standard website section into four different ones which describe and give deeper information about me and my services.

WHO I AM

For deeper information about me. Because there is always a personal aspect to relationships, even professional ones, it is important to know who you are dealing with, in order for everything to go as smoothly as possible. I work for people I like and whom I trust. I do my best for my customers to think the same about me. Some graphic designers disguise themselves as agencies, using the word « we » in order to attract clients. I prefer sincerity all the way from the beginning, for the relationship to be close and honest. I am a freelancer and I am not part of a group of people nor a company. But this enables me to be more flexible and reactive: no need to validate a wanted modification through a hierarchical superior, and I can work onsite, which I usually do.

MY SERVICES

The different kinds of services I can achieve for you, and my rates. If you are interested by my profile but it seems I cannot handle the whole job you want to give me, you can still contact me, I will put you in relation with a trustful production agency for the part of the work which needs to be done by some other people. The reason I give my prices openly is that I want with my clients a trustful / transparent relationship. And for the same reason I want things to clear ever since the beginning: even though I master the tools I use, the Adobe collection, and am as used to working on Mac as working on PC, I am not a technician but a creative person, whose main focus is video, not to be confused with a linear video editor who would happen to also know how to modify images.

MOTION DESIGNER

Here I explain my job in detail, and the reason why, on the French version of the website I have chosen to describe myself as “graphiste vidéo”, literally video graphic designer instead of the now much more common motion designer. I bought the graphiste-video.fr domain name back in 2005, at a time when there was no real official name for my activity in France. In English motion graphic artist is what qualifies me the best, but that doesn’t translate well into French, we keep the word artistic for anything which doesn’t have a business purpose, which means marketing can’t be considered as artistic in my language… Graphic design is not just technical, it requires some knowledge about aesthetics, but it’s not art because its aim is commercial, it’s somewhere in between…

MY LEGAL STATUS

Here I explain my freelancer legal status, not to be confused with contractor. There are a lot of advantages to be found in working with a freelancer compared to an employee, the daily cost is usually lower than that of a French salary because there are no patronal charges to be paid. We are available for very punctual missions, there’s no risk of paying without reason when there is no activity. But these advantages on the customer’s side don’t come for “free”, they are related to important risks on the freelancer’s, the entrepreneur’s side, who is everything but a cheaper and more flexible version of an employee: a freelancer deals with a customer, not a hierarchy, gives invoices for the work which has been done, doesn’t receive a payslip. We take a lot of risks, and therefore deal with a customer, not a manager or a team.
That’s true for normal freelancers, but on top of this I’m “affilié à la MDA”, which is a special legal status for freelance graphic designers in France. It is only compatible with creative work, but there are advantages on the customer’s side: since my taxes are lower than for other French freelancers thanks to that status my prices are also lower, regardless of my many years of work experience. These prices being directly linked with my legal status, don’t expect me to do some kinds of work it forbids, because my prices are attractive…