Who was the first company you designed panel graphics for?
Definitely Mutable Instruments, though Hexinverter followed shortly after. A friend told me that Stacy had was looking for somebody to design a logo for Hexinverter and I immediately contacted him. For some time these were my only clients in the modular community. I was lucky to start with them, since they really make amazing modules, which of course helped a lot in spreading my work as well.
Do you get involved beyond the design stages? Working alongside companies with module ideas, helping them get started etc?
It's really hard not to do that! The thing is: often new clients approach me asking for a combination of panel, logo and visual identity. In these cases it's often small makers, just starting out. To be able to create a good logo I need to get pretty deep into what people do, why they do it, who they are, what their motivation is, etc. Often these things aren't fully conceptualized, so I end up helping them to get started in some ways, defining their identity beyond just the logo. Another thing that might happen is that somebody has a new idea for a module and just wants to see how it would work as a panel, or needs feedback on the functionality. In these cases I get involved in the design stage pretty early and sometimes even get to shape the functionality. Lately this happens more frequently, for example, for Black Market's upcoming Colour Palette Standalone Edition (the pedal), I was part of the core design team from the very beginning. It's really exciting for me to work like this!