Location:
Lille, France

Site(s):
www.123klan.com
www.vectorlounge.com

Tell me about 123Klan... what exactly is it and when did it start:
123KLAN is a graffiti crew created in 1992 by Scien & Klor in the north side of France, the members are: SCIEN - KLOR - DEAN - SPER - SKAM - MERIC and RESO

But we are also involved in graphic design since 1994, and start our first digital piece on Illustrator 5.5, then we start to realise different artwork for many people like break beat flyers, logo for different electro labels, vynl covers, t-shirts, books, posters, stickers.

and of course we still represent our skills on wall. Concerning Graffiti we already moved a lot around the world to paint with different people. We already paint in: Lille, Dunkerque, Strasbourg, Paris, Toulouse, Beziers ( France) but also in Roma, London, Brussels, Hamburg, Munich, Eindhoven, New York and soon in Barcelona during the OFFF festival.

So how did you make the move from Graffiti to commercial graphic design work: Did you get asked by people to do this or were you already interested in graphic design?
We discover graphic design via the Neville Brody book2 and we understood that graffiti writers and graphic designers go on the same way, it's all about "style". The only difference between graffiti and graphic design is the tool, except that you can do all what you want.

Your and Klor's styles are quite similar, do all the 123klan members have similar styles or are they all very different:
Yeah, Klor and i got quite a similar style, because we work in a real osmoze and our style grew up together too, we mostly paint and realise all our stuff together. our style is not the "Klor" or "Scien" style but the "Scien&Klor" style;) concerning the other members they got a different style but we all use the same technic, like no 3d style but 2d style and when we do a wall together that's why maybe it looks fresh;)

It's like if we all got a similar house style book, but the other members are more focused into graffiti than grahic design, i mean 123klan.com was made by Klor and i because we are really involved into graphic design and just find a new medium to share our style.

You use Flash a lot... when did you first start to animate your designs and was it a bit strange after usually working on flat graffiti pieces:
I start to use Flash when i get employed by teamCHMAN but i also discover the webdesign scene too, when we discover it, it was really magic for us coz with this program you really can make the people feel what you really feel, i mean you can put music make it moves that's the funniest thing about it + everything is made for vectorial stuff so it's great coz most of our stuff are made in vector, we are big fan of Illustrator;)

What do you like best... producing graphic design work or a graffiti piece:
The both, i mean it's similar in certain way the only difference is the tool and the medium but webdesign like graffiti, you meet cool people all around the world with lot of skills like graffiti, graphic design touch any supports the only difference is that you get well pay for graphic design it's not the case of graffiti.

The thing that we most like, is to put graffiti on different mediums and it seems that people enjoy it, the "STYLE" is the key of our work i mean a graffiti piece or a splash screen is the same thing for us you got a space and you have to include your elements as best as possible in it, we didn't try to do graphic design, i mean like all graphic designers we got the base, and with it you can do all what you want, that's why we enjoy to include as much as possible graffiti in our graphic design, like arrows or bubble fx or hand writing tag and graffiti piece but also our color set. For example when we do an abstract shape in graphic design, it has a real sense for us it's not just a abstract shape it's close to a wildstyle graffiti piece, that's also what make us maybe a lil bit different from other graphic designer, our graffiti background.

Who are your favourite graffiti artists and graphic designers:
Wow, the list is too long, but to name a few:
Graffiti: we are big fans of NYC writers like: T.Kid, Futura 2000, Stash, Cope2, Ces, Serve, Wane, Dash
Graphic design: Volume one, Hungry For Design, Bionic Systems, Extra design, ABC, D.form1 etc...

Ok... onto another subject... tell us how and why you started Vector Lounge:
Because like Graffiti, i think that the webdesign scene need a real event to represent it, most of webdesign events (even if it's interesting) are to serious and boring to me, that's why we need an event where people can create, meet, share and jam together that's the interesting point of it, not make a business event but a jam to show to the people that webdesign is a real culture and not only a work, it is also important for a culture to get its own appointement especially for the webdesign scene who is a virtual culture, but also to me the first culture who grew up everywhere in the same time and also to understand it as its best level.

You have had them in Paris, Annecy, Linz and Amsterdam... where will the next few be:
If everything is all right we should make it in Singapore in April during the next Fresh Conference; in Chicago in June with the guyz at SetPixel; In Paris in september and Lille ( the place where we're based) in November, of course we will confirm all the dates online asap;)

How do you choose the artists:
it mostly depends of the theme, But also of the money :(, we mostly invite cool peeps and try to invite different talented people each time. For example in Chicago it will be a special on Video so we will select people who can do video but video that you can't see on tv like hungry for design or Demo design for example.

Last question (I ask everyone this one).. what do you know about Australian design and designers:
Aussie webdesigners are really talented:) the first guy from Aussie that we discovered was "Merda" coz he use to be a graffiti writer too but he's a talented graphic designer i also get the opportunity to get there and meet lot of talented and cool peeps during the last Fresh like DIK crew (hehehe) DS9R, Luca.com.au, Aussieinfront (Hi Justin:) the talented guyz at Rinzen, you guyz got skillz and 123KLAN respect you a lot :)