Simon Freour Interview(s)
PHNX Jury Interview 2024
Why did you think it was important to join the PHNX jury this year?
As I keep making progress in my career, I feel it is my duty to give back to the community that I learn so much from everyday!
What do you think of our hybrid jury, featuring creatives but also strategists, clients and people from all corners of the industry?
Design is a complex topic, especially in a commercial environment, where a lot of functions are involved in briefing, judging, coordinating, making etc. So it is only logical to involve representatives of all these disciplines in a panel. We want to judge design as it would be judged in the real world!
What do you think of the idea of free entry until the shortlist stage?
That's great — as a budding designer, there are a lot of awards I couldn't enter because of the price. A free first step allows everyone to test the waters and gauge their skills!
How would you define the perfect PHNX Awards winner?
I like to see design as a holistic practice, so obviously I want to see design that looks beautiful, but I also want it to be grounded in reality, to feel conceptually strong, and to be either commercially viable or super experimental. Making things pretty is easy if you forget about the contingencies of the real world!
What is having the biggest impact on creative trends at the moment?
I would have to say generative AIs! I also see more and more 3D used in interesting ways. I feel like the best design lives at the intersections of new tools and trends.
Who would you nominate as your two or three “creatives of the year”?
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