1 - M/M Paris

The first thing that strikes me when I see works by M/M Paris is passion and expression. The imagery just wants to jumps off of the page and emerge you in its bright colours, endless patterns and surreal imagery. With print-based work M/M Paris work with photography, illustration, typography and fuse them all together to create a visual roller-coaster and feast for your eyes. It all has a hand-crafted feel about it and it's all very organic and alive, whether it be incorporating human forms into shapes or have a human face awash in penciled colours and patterns.


My first thought would be that M/M Paris' clients are fashion and music. The imagery they create is fresh, rebellious, inventive and indeed they have worked for fashion magazines such as Vogue Paris & Arena Homme and musicians such as Bjork.

Although I don't care much for the image in the above picture I do like the font that M/M Paris have created. M/M Paris also directed their first music video with Bjork and although it begins well and has some nice visuals I did feel like it became very repetitive very quickly.

BJORK-HIDDEN PLACE
Uploaded by pierrot77. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

What I also like is how M/M Paris' works have a sense of controlled chaos. It's big and bright and loud but you can tell it is also sophisticated and not 'over-cooked'. Despite this sophistication though, I do wonder whether or not M/M Paris are more style over substance?

Here are a few more examples of works that I like:

Something else that stood out for me is the book 'Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made'.

'French design studio M/M Paris were in charge of designing this massive book on Kubrick’s unfilmed masterpiece Napoleon. Tucked inside of a carved-out book, all the elements from Stanley Kubrick’s archives that readers need to imagine what his unmade film about the emperor might have been like, including a facsimile of the script. This collector’s edition is limited to 1,000 numbered copies.'

What I love about this is the sheer size and scope. I think it's very inspired. The leather bound book that houses smaller books has a decadent grandness about it. The book probably wouldn't look out of place if it was in the 18th century sitting on Napoleon's bookshelf. The size and effort put into this book gives a sense of how big a project and a labor of love the film was to Kubrick and how epic is would have been if it had actually been made.