Geoffroy Pithon's explosive mix of art and graphic design for Claptrap's latest music video

Geoffroy Pithon was approached by Claptrap earlier last year to come up with an identity for its latest music album, Adulting, under the French record label Un je-ne-sais-quoi.

Originally conceived by Eric Pasquereau, each of the songs has been skilfully decomposed, twisted, disguised and recomposed in collaboration with Julien Chevalier, Paul Loiseau and Vincent Robert to create a pleasing fusion of traditional instruments such as mandolin, classical guitar and percussions with futuristic modular synthesisers, rhythm boxes, and electronic music. You could say it's an unorthodox electro-acoustic masterpiece that's ripe for Pithon's creative input.

Abstract and playful, Pithon's resulting artwork is typical of his approach. A graduate of the Decorative Art School of Paris and part of the former collective Formes Vives, he is a graphic designer as much as he is a painter with two opposing practices that generate interesting outcomes for a range of clients. It's as though he's enjoying a tug of war between the many constraints weighing on the former and a whole heap of freedom characterising the latter. But he somehow finds the right balance with an approach that develops unique visual languages and identities where colours, words, awkwardness, shapes and figures beautifully come together.

It certainly inspired him to create an exciting suite of artworks for Claptrap – painting, drawings, paper cut-outs and lettering – that were also brought together in a stop-motion music video animated by Gérald Fleury. An animator, director, illustrator and visual artist, Fleury trained in the applied arts and is no stranger to the music industry. With Timo Hateau, he forms the director duo Mizotte & Cabecou, specialising in creating music videos for the likes of Andy Shauf, Deerhoof, and Shannon Wright.

Adulting by Claptrap is out now, and you can sit back and enjoy its latest track, Out Of, below. In the meantime, you can see more of Pithon's latest work at geoffroypithon.net.