HARRISSON

Have you ever met somebody who litteraly draws you in his attraction field and really make things work out and kick your asses!?
I know this one guy, called Harrisson.
I met him through a friend, totally naturally, we talked about music and Culture.
I already knew his work from a french band named “Ich Bin”, I had noticed one cover especially.
It represented a map of France, re-organized around Mulhouse (from which the band is) with a lot of funny and clever details. Mulhouse (a small town considered as an "asshole" place for most of the people) becomes the center of a war zone. For me, It perfectly illustrates the mood and spirit of the band, "me against the world" kind of. Take a look at it!

(click on picture to enlarge & take your french/english dictionnary to translate!)

After several meetings, Harrisson came back to Paris to work at the Contemporary art Centre of Pompidou (Beaubourg) for the documentary festival "Le cinéma du réel".
I came by to see him at the beginning of his installation just to say hello. I was really excited, as he was doing another "map" about the festival programmation !
I met his collaborator, Ludivine (who works in Speculos agency in Bruxelles), and they explained to me all the articulations of the map, the font, etc... The map represented the face of a character from "La jetée" by Chris Marker, all the movies shown during the festival were also represented on it, as well as many others details...

(Click on picture to enlarge)
I offered to help them on this project and they accepted... I worked with them for two days in Beaubourg, and it was a great experience!

(Click on picture to enlarge)
They totally made me part of the project and finally, they posted a really human and moving text about my participation, on their website (FIX). You can check this link for any further details:
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/news/osp-full-scale-in-beaubourg

Moreover, Harrisson is not just a graphic designer.
He invited me two weeks later to participate in a workshop with his students in Bruxelles. He is currently teaching at ERG school (Ecole de Recherche Graphique/Graphic Research School) with Laurent (http://rbdx.com/) and he invited me to make a "fanzine" with the students together with another illustrator friend from Liege, Jerome (http://www.cream-o-rama.com/).
Once again, it was a great experience. The Students (freshmen) were amazing, really wide-awaked, motivated and already using technics from another space (world ?)!


(Click on pictures to enlarge)


We ‘ve been working for two days and we finally produced something like 100 pages... These students are crazy!
I believe, they are really lucky to have people like Harrison & Laurent to show them what can be "creation" really ... This is a great laboratory which enables multi-creative experimentations without any complexes.
Please, just have a look at this blog, there are all the projects from Harrisson & laurent's lessons:
http://www.collerettecocofilllsd.com/school/"




(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Finally, I'm very proud to take part of those and future projects.
Beyond the "beautiful", the "cool" or the "smart", Harrisson seems to work on an a real intelligent human process. With his experimentations and his volition to show something different, He has conviced me and many other people (I'm sure!) to move our "ass"...
Thank you,

Many thanks to C. for the translation!!! My french/english is fun but not totally understandable!!!


All links are here:

http://www.collerettecocofilllsd.com/school/
http://rbdx.com/
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/
http://www.picapica.be/
http://www.cream-o-rama.com/