Valextra Meets Črtomir Just And Maj Meden

The Slovenia-based 3D artists are well-known for their dynamic approach to art and design, so when Valextra set about realising our SS22 campaign through a fresh lens, we knew just the duo to task. Here, Just and Meden share what a project has to present to excite them and why coffee is a creative must.

Valextra: Ciao Črtomir and Maj! Thank you for chatting with us. We’d love to start by asking you how you both got started in your careers and what first drew you both working as 3D artists? 

 

Črtomir Just: I’ve been drawn to visual expression for as long as I can remember. I started playing with Photoshop 4 in high school. When I was studying landscape architecture, things got more serious and I got into design and 3D visualisation which led to where I am now.

 

Maj Meden: I started flirting with 3D around 2017 and decided to pursue it seriously in 2018. What drew me into 3D is the work of other artists and the possibilities that it gives you, but also the technical aspect of it when I discovered Houdini.

 

V: Črtomir, can you tell us about your creative studio, FrancFranc, and where the name came from?  


ČJ: FrancFranc was a publishing house founded back in 1991 by my father Franc Just and Franc Lainšček. Both are still important figures in Slovenian literature, but the publishing business was in decline and so we took over the company which is now a design studio. We thought the name was cool, so we kept it - although there are no more Francs in our team!


V: That sounds inspiring. So, you often work with collaborators in your team and beyond; what do you enjoy about the process this presents?


ČJ: We’re a small team of four – myself, Maj, Staša Sukič and Samo Tanacek and used to work as freelancers in our own fields of graphic design, photography and 3D. Living in a small town in Slovenia, Murska Sobota, and having grown up together is what started us doing stuff together. Merging our characters and different areas of design helps each of us to get better and in the end makes the team more versatile and stronger. It may sound like a cliché, but we really have fun working together every day, despite the hectic nature of the business.


V: There’s a lot of colour in your work – why are you attracted to use it and how does it energise you as artists?  

       

ČJ: In everyday life, I don’t really like to be surrounded by too many colours because the world is already visually cluttered and messy, so I try to balance that by being generally unintrusive. But in the art world, I like to be more daring and using colours is a good way of getting attention where it’s needed. I’m more into providing colours than wearing them.


V: Can you tell us about the SS22 Valextra campaign you collaborated with us on and your vision for each mesmerising CGI video?


ČJ: Valextra wanted it to be sweet, colourful and something that would pop, which is what we’re good at! I think our work already stylistically fitted with Valextra’s portfolio and the brief was something that we could easily identify ourselves with. So the course of the whole project was quite natural.


V: We agree! On the same note, can you tell us what elements have to be present in a project to interest you?


ČJ: I like to think that every task can be unique, challenging and rewarding in the end - that's why we take on very different projects. We do graphic design for soda flyers and complex multimedia installations. The element of interest is the thrill of solving a problem for someone with design. This interview, for an example, is a design challenge that ticks a lot of boxes in the interesting category.


V: That’s good to hear! Maj, what elements most interest you when it comes to taking on a commission? 

 

MM: Mostly room for experimentation and finding new avenues of thinking and solving problems.

 

V: Can you both tell us what your process is when it comes to starting a project?


ČJ: It’s usually a mix of research and brainstorming, searching and sketching. Then comes the hard work that annihilates all initial ideas that you thought would solve the problem.


MM: For me, it’s coffee, thinking, analysing, experimenting, more coffee, more experimenting…


V: We’re Italian, so good coffee is a must, agreed. So, your work features social, political and satirical commentary and messages; why is it important to you to use art to express this?


ČJ: When a strong, witty idea is supported by equally good visuals, that satisfies me in a special way. I believe it does others too and sends a message, yes. It’s not always necessary; I’m creating abstract and conceptual artworks at the same time, but maybe it’s because I’m so involved in design that I need to write my own brief even for a self-initiated project.


MM: Art can be the most open form of communication in my opinion. I can be as direct or cryptic as I like. [It’s] freedom to express.