Arnaud Icard
www.a-icard.com, de.MO


AI: I'm 28, happy father of an 18 months boy Eliott, happily married to a sweet woman France (don't skip the cedilla, please!). I'm a freelancer since nearly 3 years now.

Where are you from?
I'm from France; I currently live in Normandy, near Honfleur harbor, a really beautiful area.

Design education:
I followed a 2 years program at the Technology Institute of Grenoble, France, in the field of publishing and new media (almost useless), after a BA (Ancient History).

What was your first experience with flash?
It was disappointing! I preferred Director at the beginning, but when Flash 4 appeared, it was a revelation. And when Colin Moock's definitive guide was published, finally it seemed possible to work with Flash...

How important is actionscript for the flash designer?
It's essential! It's now a non-sense to get any Flash job done without a good knowledge of AS. This is less evident with large-scale projects where animation specialists, graphic designers and coders are requested... But it's always important to (at least) understand how things stick together, and what the coders are doing. Though, I think it's good to mix the talents... a coder who do design and a designer who knows how to code have great chances to understand each other quite well and there are pretty good chances a good synergy emerges in such collaborations (see Branden Hall + Joshua Davis.

Also, it's clear AS is not all what you need. It's just one of the technologies available. You need to know at least one server-side scripting language (like PHP) and a DBM (like MySQL), and knowing CSS and XML (at least the basics) is essential, too. A static Flash site is useless, as static HTML sites are.

A lot of up and coming designers seem to emulate other people's work, what are your thoughts on that?
I don't know... This is the same old debate about influences, admiration and lack of imagination, or I don't know... How can you copyright a talent? Look at designers like Arnaud Mercier (elixir Studio) : he's influential, and copied... at the same time.

What types of software do you currently use?
I don't like to talk about software, but rather about technologies. I use Flash (which is also a software), but also PHP, MySQL, XML, I think SVG is really elegant though barely useable in real word applications. Proce55ing in such a wonderful tool...

It seems like you are getting a lot of attention for your talent. Can you share with us your feelings on your success:
I don't feel I experienced such a success! Some people seems to like my works somehow, and I had the chance to work with talented (and nice) people esp. this year... But I'm just a freelancer like many others, struggling to get new contracts...

What inspires you?
A lot of things... My son, the nature, books I read, music... I can't tell how ideas come. They come, period.

With broadband a household necessity do you still think it's important to cater to dial-up and 56k users?
Sure! You know, it's still a good idea to build lightweight applications. That lets more bandwidth for the content. And the web is not TV, nor it is video games. Its content can be lightweight, and most of the more successful and beloved websites are accessible through dial-up. Sometimes better is too much, and this is often true over the Internet.

Besides Spam, and pop-ups what do you dislike about the Internet?
Well besides Spam... (Spam kills me... I get 200 junk mails every day) - I don't know... I'm quite free not to go where I don't want to!

How would you explain a flash website that's overused?
I believe it's a bit like the use of Photoshop filters, if you know what I mean. The question of coolness is very personal.

Do you prefer technologically advanced sites or sites with simple but good design?
Both can be great! Probably the winners are simple and good design with great (and sometimes invisible) technology.

Do you have any cool actionscript tips?
Nope, I don't have 'tips'. All I can say about AS is: read Colin Moock, then re-read him. Then plan your work on paper carefully. That will save you many hours of sleep.

What are your bad design habits?
I love gray too much. I hate sophistication too much. Sometimes I'm not fun enough (from a 'design' point of view)

The transitions of your website are very smooth and fluent, is it done with tweens or just pure actionscript?
That's all AS driven. For this kind of stuff, no animator can beat a well-written script.

How would you like to be remembered?
: As a good father! (And a cool fellow worker rather than 'the best of the world in this or this')

Do you have any new projects coming up that you can tell us about?
Nope, sorry!

Favorite food:
Goulash (no kidding!)

Final comments:
Thanks!

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