Marseille, July 15th 2021

Louis Ansa is a multidisciplinary designer from France.He was the Creative Director at the agency makemepulse for three years and is now a freelancer, working with clients from across the world.

From motion design to art direction to interactive experiences and digital products to 3D to branding and managing, Louis likes to work on many levels.

In an interview with TIA, Louis described his current life as a freelancer in the city of Marseille, where he’s based.

He went through some of his recent work experiences at makemepulse and highlighted the challenges brought in by the Covid-19 pandemic, such as time management.

To kick things off, please tell us a little bit about your city and why is a great place to work?

I live in the sunny city of Marseille! It’s located in the very south of France on the Mediterranean sea. It’s a very peculiar place to live in and people either love it or hate it. The city has its own rules and it’s a bit of a mess, but it’s also the reason why this place is unique. I’ve been working remotely for about 2 years now and I feel so relaxed and chill here, I call it the California side of France.

What’s a regular day like in Louis Ansa’s shoes?

I usually wake up at 8:30 am, read for a bit before sharing a good coffee on my sunny patio with my girlfriend (who’s also a designer). After I charge my batteries with sunlight, I begin my work routine by going on Twitter to see what’s going on. After seeing so many creative people doing amazing stuff, I’m super excited to switch to start actual work. I spend my morning working with my teammates until 1 pm when I take my lunch break. We often go to the seaside to have lunch and enjoy the fresh air for about an hour. The afternoon work time is usually the most intense work time I have in the day until 7 pm when I stop working. My evening time is shared between having beers with my friends and go rock climbing in the city’s national park.

What made you decide to become a freelancer?

I’ve always been freelancing since I was a student. Even though I like working with my regular team, I really think having side projects is vital for creatives. It helps me test out new things, learn new techniques and softwares while growing my network. It is also an opportunity to create projects closer to what I like in my personal life. I noticed a shift in the creative industry where designers often close the gap between work life and personal life. Some aspects are not good for the work-life balance but some others push creatives to work on projects that promote ecology, feminism & altruism, it’s amazing!

You were the Lead Creative at makeMePulse, what makes the agency stand out?

I worked with makemepulse for about three years now but I recently left the company to focus on freelance and grow on the product design side. I think makemepulse is a very strong actor in the current digital production industry thanks to its team.

The team is composed of passionate people driven by quality and craft. Even though the company started with 90% of developers and 10% designers, it is now composed of 50% of each. I helped makemepulse grow the creative team to 8 creatives and managed to deliver creative work that we are now proud of, competing with the top agencies & studios in the world.

What do you feel are the keys to success when working remotely with a client?

Working remotely has been a real challenge for everyone since the COVID crisis. I spent so many hours in endless meetings that it was very hard for me to produce actual work. Time management is the key to success in achieving something remotely.

Working with clients requires collaborators to use communication in a smart and efficient way. Using as much written communication is important to keep track of what’s being said. While meetings are important and some things are easier said than written, it is very tiring. It is very important to limit the meetings to a minimum without inviting people just for the sake of inviting them.

Besides this communication aspect, I think most freelancers are used to work remotely with client from around the globe.

One of your recent works is the Sea Shepherd – No Fishing Net project, what were the biggest challenges of making this immersive website in terms of creativity, art direction and development?

No Fishing is a pro bono project that our team agreed to work on during office hours and beyond. We created a small team to optimize the cost of the production and work efficiently. The main challenge was to define the scope with such a challenging timeline.

On the creative aspect, we knew we needed to create a 3D globe in order to let users discover the Sea Shepherd fleet and visualize the impact of fishing in the seas. I started doing moodboards and did some sketches to talk with William Mapan and Arnaud Pinot, the two lead developers.

We quickly moved into 3D design to define the global art direction. This 3D phase had a lot of back and forth before finding the right style. Trying to get a realistic style was out of question because of the schedule, we needed to find a less time-consuming approach that would still fit the overall tone of the theme. I came up with the concept of showcasing the polluted oceans and seas with fishing nets covering up all the water parts on the globe. In doing so, we could then reveal some areas of clear water to illustrate the action of Sea Shepherd ships around the globe.

The perfect client brief: Does it exist?

Yes, working with creativity & quality driven clients.

What is some recent work from MakeMePulse that you’re most proud of?

For sure, Nomadic Tribe, an interactive tale & Sea Shepherd, an immersive website, two of the most creative pieces I worked on during my time at makemepulse.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“Work with the client and not against the client.”

Three top tools you can’t live without?

• Figma
• After Effects
• Cinema 4D/Blender

How do you keep up to date on industry trends?

My daily routine consists of going on Twitter, Behance, Dribbble, Pinterest and Print design focused websites.

Can you name a fun-fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

I rock climb almost as much as I design 🙂

Thanks Louis!

Follow Louis Ansa on social media:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Behance

Instagram

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