Meet Matthieu CONIL, Communications Manager DPO Consulting Group and The Feebles, creative studio, for a collaboration with myDPO.
Matthieu CONIL: The idea stems from our positioning, which is to “make data protection accessible to everyone.” To do this, we have deployed the “myDPO” solution, which offers (among other things) the “ZEN” package. The “ZEN” offer is intended for companies with less than 10 employees and gives access to an exceptional service, the “DPO as-a-service”. A “DPO as-a-service” means access to a software that allows you to fully control your personal data management, while benefiting from an official designation with the CNIL and the support of an expert consultant in the field.
As Communications Manager, I wanted something impactful, something visually striking, something out of the ordinary and above all consistent with our motto: accessible to all, big or small.
After some time of reflection, my team and I chose the idea of the mandala to visually represent the ZEN offer. The coloring allows the expression of the smallest and to find his soul of child when you are older. Once the idea was approved, we had to put it on paper. But how and in what way?
That’s where The Feebles come in.
The Feebles is a well-known and reputable creative studio in Nantes, but not just that.
I discovered them when I was living in Nantes (before joining DPO Consulting) and I was able to see several of their creations during events like Hip Hop Session or during the Voyage à Nantes with the decoration of urban spaces dedicated to cycling on the Pont Anne-de-Bretagne, for example. It’s a studio and artists that I’ve been following for 5 years now. What I like in their way of creating is the use of geometric and abstract forms coupled with more figurative drawings, the combination of the two allowing the multiplication the channels of transmission of emotions, giving each project a unique rendering.
I thought that a collaboration between our two structures could make sense: a hybrid mandala halfway between the abstract and the figurative represents perfectly the ZEN offer: software and people. The mandala produced by The Feebles contains all the soul of the ZEN offer: the drawing seems chaotic, but in reality it is a construction that can be mastered in a ZEN spirit.
The Feebles: We like to experiment with different media and we hadn’t yet had the opportunity to test our work on a mandala. So that’s the challenge we wanted to take up when working on this project. We also liked the idea of allowing people to bring the final touch to the drawing themselves. Indeed, usually, our work goes further: we color ourselves the sketches we work on. But on this project, the objective was to stop our creation just before the colorization stage to offer several lives to this visual: those imagined by all the people who will take the time to color it (we can’t wait to see all the different versions imagined!) And then, the exchanges with Matthieu were very nice and pleasant, which was a real “plus” for us and was what gave us the desire to go further.
Matthieu CONIL: From my point of view, I wouldn’t say that this is usual but that it is something that tends to develop more and more. It is much more common to see collaborations emerge between an artist and a company in the B2C sector, that’s a fact. If art exists in the corporate world, it is for commercial purposes, or to decorate offices, or to organize events.
The B2B sector is often perceived as boring and not very exciting, but we must not forget that behind these companies is a human being making decisions. And a human being is a condensed emotional being. This is an important factor and it is through this prism that we must look at the B2B sector to propose new things. It’s up to us to change mindsets by showing that it’s possible to change things with this kind of collaboration. Yes, we can address our corporate clients or legal entities with art, yes, we can convey messages from one legal entity to another through a pictorial representation of our product, magnified by the hands of artists, because companies function thanks to the men and women who work there. It is for them that myDPO is intended. What a pleasure it is to be able to convey the values of the company I work for through communication, and to be able to do so in an original way by calling on artists I admire!
The Feebles: As Matthieu says, we work most of the time with companies in the B2C sector, associations, institutions, individuals… But rarely with B2B companies, nor in the IT sector. This is a first for us! But it is not a hindrance at all. What matters to us is the project itself, the desire to collaborate for good reasons, the fact of democratizing art and making it accessible to all. It doesn’t matter what sector of activity you’re in, anyone can be sensitive to art!
The Feebles: Making a mandala allowed us to work on our style in a slightly different way: by adding characteristic mandala shapes, by thinking about a visual in symmetry, we also had to project ourselves on coloring by hand and propose more or less precise shapes to color. It seemed important to us to integrate the myDPO logo, for the obvious link with the company – it is very recognizable and identifiable – and to embellish this abstract visual with a central figurative element. So yes, the project did inspire us, we are very happy with the result!
Matthieu CONIL: Extremely happy for several reasons.
First, for the quality of the discussions I had with the Feebles team.
The second reason, which was essential in my opinion, was to limit as little as possible the creators’ imagination and visual expression. What was important for me was to find the artistic touch that is so characteristic of The Feebles.
From my point of view, the mission was successful and I am very happy with the final result.
I’m looking forward to the feedback from the people we meet at the next shows, I can’t wait to see their eyes sparkle and the smiles on their faces!
