Edouard Artus
www.apoka.com


EA: I lived in Australia for 9 years and came back to France when I was 14. My parents always let me pursue my interests. I received the Holy Spirit when I was 13. I went to a High school where they taught me to analyze. I have been skateboarding since I am 18. I worked in a company with great people for 3 years. I have been freelance for since several months. I think that I am a mixture between me and the people I have met or lost.

Where are you from?
Thouars, a little town in France.

Design education:
Nothing really apart from a high school course axed towards design

How did you start out as an artist and designer?
I drew a lot when I was younger. At one point, before, it was easier for me to communicate with drawings than with words. It was the advantage I had over other kids my age who had only been learning what they where been taught at school. Basically I just stuck to what I felt most comfortable with. It was my thing. And it worked because I found my first job 3 years before the other people in my school did.

Did you go from creating art and then move into graphic / web design or was it the other way around?
Design was first; art only came when I reached certain maturity.

Do you think that traditional art styles transfer across well to
graphic design?
Yes, Not only I this, I think that graphic design is influenced by art styles. Nearly like a product in a way. You can pick up nearly any object and categorize it into an art style.

I've noticed your website is very actionscript driven, do you have any actionscript tips you would like to share?
Yes I do. I recommend designers who isn't a good coder to get advice from their action scripting friends:) I'm very lucky.

Where do you see the future of flash?
I don't know. I use flash as a tool. Maybe tomorrow somebody will make a better tool, or we simply won't need it any more. In the mean time, I think it has potential. Online and offline.

What do you know about Hawaii design/designers?
Well, um...let me see....www.google....no, honestly nothing. This might prove that there is some room waiting to be filled up by brilliant people. But perhaps I'm just ignorant.

Your art reminds me a lot of Japanese anime, can you comment about that?
I was a Jap anime fan younger on. I loved designing characters and that's probably what got me heavily into drawing and graphics. But I'm put that aside more often. I need to move on.

I love the uniqueness of your navigation how did you come up with that idea?
I sell graphic design and ideas so I can't use plain hypertexts to show my work. If I want to survive the graphic design and the ideas must be good enough for people to want me to work for them. So I try my best. For the current apoka site I opted for unusual type navigation. Most people like it. On the outside it looks ok but the original file is a real clockwork mechanic and updating is much too long and difficult so I decided to give it another try and make something as easy for users to navigate than for me to update. And honestly, a calendar type presentation truly works.

Do you think that Flash is cool or overused?
Both. It's cool because it has broken lots of barriers. And that's probably why it's overused.

Do you prefer technologically advanced sites or sites with simple but good design?
I see sites as something practical, a place where I can find answers to a need or a question. So I prefer simple but good design. . It's no use if they are 2advanced. But then again, maybe good design is when the design is so seductive that it makes you forget about the purpose of the site. Who knows?

If you had a choice, which program that you currently use would you like to see changed and why?
Since I mainly use flash, I would say flash because there are still quite a few bugs, and they are a pain. Whereas for features...For what I do with flash, I'm satisfied. Probably because only use about 10% anyway.

What are your bad personal and design habits?
I don't use paper often enough and I don't use enough of my spare time to do graphic research, documentation and exploration.

Design styles you dislike:
There's no reason for me to hate any design styles. Some might make me laugh though.

How would you like to be remembered?
As the guy no one remembered.

Do you have any new projects coming up that you can tell us about?
I've got lots of things in thought but they might never come out. I have to finish the hospital site and I'd like to have a good challenge mode in apoka calendar.

If web / graphic design did not exist what and where would you be?
Anything. Musician, writer, teacher, sports professional, actor.


Final comments:
www.apoka.com/musicians
http://hospital.apoka.com
www.apoka.com/apokacalendar

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