Frédéric Forest traces the essence of form through minimal lines

Transmission 210: Interview with Frédéric Forest

Frédéric Forest is a well-known interdisciplinary artist, designer, and creative director on a global scale. Across several media and genres, his delicate and refined approach is evident. He grew up in Annecy, a city in the French Alps spent his time skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding and drawing. He graduated from ENSCI/Les Ateliers in Paris. After working for several agencies and with designers like Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance and Jean-Marie Massaud, he and Clementine Giaconia established their own furniture and interior design firm “Forest-Giaconia”. 

 He continued his career as a designer while honing his artistic skills by sketching every day since he was a young boy. He concentrates on still lifes, architecture, landscapes, and body shapes that are all minimally appealing. He has contributed to several magazines, such as Cereal, Kinfolk, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue Australia, and commercials with companies like Bang & Olufsen, Kitsune, and Chanel, Hermès, Adidas and Cartier, He has been included in shows in Spain and Miami at Art Basel. His art prints, books, and other items have been marketed by the publishing firm Grammatical since 2017.

David Souffan, Art Director of Lancôme International, asks Frederic Forest if he was interested to collaborate with him on their campaign during the “Women’s Day” that was also called the “Day of Women’s Rights” in Europe with his artwork “Self Love Woman”. Over 5,000 tattoos worldwide include his delicate lines, recognizable shapes, and sketches. In his Parisian studio, he dedicates his professional life to his passions of painting and sketching. 

Can you tell us about your beginning and what motivated you to take a career in the fields of art?

I began drawing at a very young age, as most children do, but I never stopped. The act of drawing — of capturing something essential in as few gestures as possible — became a way for me to understand the world. It wasn’t a decision to become an artist in a formal sense. Rather, drawing became a necessity, a language I needed. Art is very much a part of my everyday life. It’s how I process beauty, emotion, and time.

Frédéric Forest‘s official site | Instagram

Who or what outside the world of visual arts influenced your work the most: music, architecture, literature, etc.?

Architecture taught me precision, scale, and the beauty of structure. Literature taught me silence — the importance of what is not said. Music, especially minimalist compositions, influences the rhythm of my work. But perhaps more than anything, I am drawn to in-between moments — conversations, glances, pauses. These fleeting experiences shape the emotion behind my lines.

How does your experience as a designer inform your artwork, or are those two worlds completely separate for you?

Design gave me discipline and an understanding of balance and tension. But design often seeks to solve, while art seeks to question. For me, they are separate but intertwined. The clarity and restraint I learned through design inform the simplicity of my drawings. It’s a kind of training in seeing the essentials.

Many ladies consider the well-known drawing “Self Love Woman” by artist and draftsman Frederic Forest to be an icon

Your line drawings are known for their minimalism and emotional depth. How do you know when a drawing is finished and when to stop?

There’s a moment when the line starts to exist on its own. It feels whole, even in its incompleteness. That’s when I know to stop. Adding more would betray the honesty of the line. It’s about resisting the temptation of explaining everything.

Do you see your minimalist lines more as gestures, symbols, or memories? What is something people often misunderstand about simplicity in art?

They are all three — gestures of emotion, symbols of a form, and memories of a moment. Simplicity is not the absence of complexity ; it’s the distillation of it. Many assume minimalist art is quick or easy. But simplicity is often the hardest thing to achieve with integrity.

You often leave a void in your artwork, both literally and metaphorically. What role do you believe silence or empty space plays in our increasingly noisy world? What role does absence play in your creative language?

Silence is a space where meaning can settle. In my work, absence is not emptiness — it is potential. It’s where the viewer completes the drawing, brings their own memory, their own story. In the loud world we live in, I try to offer quiet. It is in the void that we often hear ourselves most clearly.

His method of sketching conveys an instantaneous image and infuses a precise.

Your artwork often evokes a sense of quiet contemplation. Is this an intentional pursuit, or a byproduct of your creative process? Is there a particular emotion or inner state you aim to preserve or return to when you draw?

It’s both. Drawing is a meditative act for me where I return to a state of stillness and attention. That contemplation finds its way into the work naturally. I try to draw without decoration — just feeling and form. The silence in the drawing is an echo of the silence I experience in my mind while drawing.

What do you seek to reveal in a single line? Do you see your work as part of a broader conversation about intimacy or identity?

A single line can carry a thousand emotions. I seek to reveal presence : a woman’s curve, a gaze, a thought caught in time. My work is about intimacy, yes, but not only the romantic kind. It’s about proximity to oneself, to memory, to form. Identity, for me, is not fixed, it shifts like the line.

The art world is in constant flux. How do you see your work fitting into the contemporary landscape now compared to when you first started exhibiting?

When I began, minimalism in drawing was not widely embraced. Now, people are more open to quiet work. Perhaps it’s a response to saturation; to visual noise. My drawings are timeless, I hope. They aren’t meant to follow a trend. They follow a pulse.

Do you believe that analog drawing still holds a special place even in a world increasingly driven by digital visuals?

Absolutely. More than ever ! The hand, the pressure, the imperfection — it’s all irreplaceable. Analog drawing holds a presence that digital work often lacks. It’s not about nostalgia, but about authenticity. A pencil on paper has a directness, a vulnerability that I — and everyone — will always need.  And of course, I just need the energy of my body and the electricity of my mind…

Dominique Musorrafiti

Ciao! My name is Dominique. I’m Italian and I’m proud to be a mix. My father was an Italian chemical engineer and high school teacher, with Greek and Polish heritage. My mother is Haitian, she was high school language teacher, with Dominican, Spanish, French, Portuguese, African and Native American heritage. Being a mix makes me appreciate to want to understand different cultures and lifestyles. I grew up in Italy, lived few years in Haiti, travel around main European capitals, lived many years in China, in Spain and UK. Traveling makes me feel that we can learn something from every situation in every part of the world.