Maud Vantours on the unlimited possibilities of paper and the Antalis Creative Power Awards

You may not yet know Maud Vantours by her name, but chances are if you have ever strolled the streets of Paris you have seen her exquisite work catching eyes in the shop windows of prestigious French brands. Or, perhaps on the pages of glossy magazines where her intricate designs often appear in perfume adverts. In fact, with clients like Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, Lanc?me, Kenzo, Chaumet, and so many more, it’s nearly impossible for one not to have come across Maud’s creations.

Maud Vantours’ unlimited imagination for the possibilities of paper is the bedrock of her creative career. But her passion for manipulating materials into dreamy design scapes and artful objects is not limited to paper. She is constantly exploring new ways to express herself with other materials, such as plexiglass, metal, and wood. In her range from whimsical to chic, and from graphic to realist, one thing is for certain — her creations are incredibly calculated with precision and attention to detail, making her a true master of her craft.?

Thus, Maud Vantours seemed the obvious selection when it came to choosing a creative to design and build the Antalis Creative Power Awards. An initiative that celebrates the power of creativity and the designers and printers whose ideas and expertise give character and personality to paper. Thus, it was paramount that the awards themselves be an object of such achievement.?

In honour of the upcoming awards, we sat down with Maud to discuss her creative journey from her earliest design memories to the founding and subsequent success of her design studio, as well as her process her contribution to the awards themselves.?

What are your earliest memories of “designing”? What led you to a career in design?

When I was a child, I wanted to have a job that consisted of drawing all day long… the perfect job. That’s is how I started my art studies and how I became a designer. I graduated from Duperré in Paris where I followed Design Training with a specialisation in textiles and materials research.

What does a day of work at yours studio look like??

There is no normal work-day in a design studio — everyday depends on what kind of project we are working on. The team and I arrive at the studio at 9.30 am. We are four people to working here, each one with a specific skill.

I start with emails and a cup of tea, then I continue to work on projects in progress. It could be designing on the computer, researching prototypes, or producing displays. After a quick lunch at the studio we continue on artworks in progress, and the afternoon is fuelled by many cups of tea…

Can you tell us about the role paper plays in your work? (i.e. why paper?)

?Paper is one of my favourite materials because it is fragile and malleable, its thickness is almost imperceptible, but accumulated it becomes dense and tough. I superimpose it, then cut layer after layer until it gains volume and a third dimension. I like the idea of using a basic material that becomes “noble” after working and sculpting it.

I’ve been working with paper for a long time and there is always a new way to use it. Paper is a material that offers many textures, aspects, and colours, and I like to mix all these possibilities. I also like mixing paper with other materials like metal, plastic, and leather to create rich aspects and surprising aesthetics.

What other mediums do you enjoy exploring?

One of our last projects was made of oak wood. A cognac decanter for Louis XIII made of thin layers of oak wood nested into layers like a pop-up system. Finally, we tried to use a paper technic but with a solid wood for a surprise effect.?

Layers evoking the cycle of time and know-how inherited from past generations of cellar masters, the studio worked with one of our great partners to build fine oak layers to give volume to the Louis XIII decanter, obtaining its perfectly recognizable silhouette.

Do you have a favourite project to date?

What I love is working on different projects, for many brands, with lots of people. Every new project is a creative challenge. My biggest challenge is to evolve, find new techniques, and create new aesthetics.?

I’m very excited when a client contacts us for a new project — to find a new story, a new concept, a new idea in adequacy with the client’s needs. Each request is a new chance to create new design, graphism, and colour matching and I love that! The challenge is to be in constant progress.

So, my favourite projects are when we find an aesthetic result or shape that surprised us, when we had no idea what the result would be at the beginning. But, after difficult research, reflection, and technic development, we find the clue and all the team agrees.

How did you get inspired for the design of the Creative Power Awards?

We built the awards like a pyramid of stones in balance. The symbolic stones evoke the delicate equilibrium from pure creation to all the steps required to achieving an artwork. All the creative process, the idea, its evolution, and its translation into a medium until its realisation.

Can you tell us about how they are constructed?

We designed it in 3D on computer, and once we were happy with the shape, we cut it into horizontal layers to translate it to paper. Every layer has a different shape to complete the global design. The paper pieces are cut with a plotter. Then, we composed the vertical puzzle layer after layer. Luckily, we numbered all the 65 paper elements or the construction would have been a headache and never ending puzzle. Lastly, for every category we chose a corresponding colour.

You also created beautiful digital animations for the digital communication of Creative Power Awards. How do you translate your work with tangible mediums to digital design work?

The animations were designed on illustrator, from the early graphic design to the scripts for each category. After that, we had to create the cut files and separate all the elements by colour, to cut it with our plotter. Then we had to construct all the designs and glue everything together.

The most interesting part was the photoshoot because it permits a certain freedom to find new ideas but interacting with the physical materials. It’s always easier to find animation ideas with the real displays instead of on the computer.

To learn more about the awards, you can check the website: https://antaliscreativepowerawards.com/

To learn more about Maud Vantours, you can check the website: https://maudvantours.com/