Graphic designer Marie Ducrocq's future-facing aesthetics are supported by thorough research

Currently working towards a master’s at ECV Paris, graphic designer Marie Ducrocq tells us that she likes to "cross disciplines to push the boundaries of graphic design. I love to experiment and challenge myself to explore and strengthen my visual universe.” As a designer with custom typefaces, publications, web design and photography in her portfolio, it’s experimentation that forms the basis of every project. “That’s what I like about graphic design,” she explains, “ you can explore and always discover new things.”

A project that Marie describes as a firm favourite of hers is Eyes, the first typeface she ever designed. “At first it was for an artistic editorial project that was about the eyes of politics of the world,” she tells us of the project’s beginnings. Wanting to create a typographic cover for that project but unable to find the perfect font, the idea came to Marie in bed (as most great ideas do), “so I took my notebook and started to draw it,” she recalls. Each letter in the typeface is designed, as you’d expect, in the shape of an eye, giving the letters a futuristic yet simultaneously amiable look.

Future-facing aesthetics feature in much of Marie’s portfolio. She explains: “I often focus on visual details that I believe make a project original and coherent with a subject. I like to take inspiration from society, history, and science fiction, but my favourite topic is the future.” Always working in this manner – researching topics and pulling out visual motifs and strong concepts – she describes her process as “a mix between tidy and messy, as I am in life… I usually generate a concept, and try to push it as far as possible to create a whole visual universe around the project.”

While Marie is a multifaceted designer, publication design forms the backbone of her process. “I’m really passionate about editorial design,” she tells us. “I love to see it, I love to make it.” One example of her work in this sphere was produced with friend and collaborator Ellyson Gasparetto. Titled Nosedive, the project unpacks the relationship between technology and society, inspired by the Black Mirror episode of the same name. “We wanted to do a beautiful and pastel object, like if we were in Black Mirror, trying to appeal to everybody,” Marie outlines.

A final project titled Le Horla brings together Marie’s type and editorial design skills. When asked, at school, to choose a book, design its contents and imagine a typeface based on its story, the designer chose Le Horla of Maupassant. “I was inspired by the characters of the book to create a custom type,” she explains. “It reflects the craziness of the story, that’s why I designed the typeface to be twisted and impacting.” Full of curves and sweeping lines, Marie’s typeface is indicative of her want to experiment in facet of her practice. With a year left on her master’s, we’re excited to see what the French designer will make next.