Intern Insights: Clément’s Journey at Josworld

Let’s take a moment for an interview! Our team has had a delightful addition over the past few months in the form of our intern Clément, enriching us with a fresh perspective. Today, we gladly hand over the floor to him, as he shares his journey during his internship at Josworld. He will tell us about his personal experiences, the course of his internship, and how we achieved the best outcomes together. An engaging conversation awaits!

Can you tell us about yourself? What did you do before coming to Josworld?

Okay, so about myself. My name is Clément Biral and I’m from Lyon. I’m in Josworld because I’m actually about two years into my Master’s degree right now and have to do thirty two weeks of internship including twelve weeks abroad from France, where I’m from. That is why I’ve come here to Josworld.

I have a bit of a chaotic course behind me. I was in a technological high school, then I moved to a technician degree in multimedia and then right now I’m in an Applied Arts private school which is where I’m doing my Master’s degree.

How did you first find out about Josworld?

That’s a good question. It was when I was looking for my internship. I knew I didn’t want to go too far away so I looked up several countries surrounding France. I checked Switzerland but it was too expensive, so I looked up Belgium and specifically Brussels. I looked up Design agencies on google maps, when I did, I found Josworld in the center of Brussels and thought— Whoa, okay, that looks cool. So I went to their website and that’s how I began to discover them.

What would you say is the key point that made you choose Josworld over other design agencies?

I think it was the values they displayed on their website. The values really resonated with me and it really, you could really see it in the projects they were showcasing on the website. Very socially-anchored but also locally-anchored in Brussels. I found that very interesting and much more interesting than other projects that may be more copyright and less creative. That’s really what resonated with me.

What were your first impressions when starting?

Here? I’ll try not to be too subjective but really my first impression was that it was very welcoming, very relaxed. No, you know, ‘No Bullshit’? That was the catchphrase of their website and that was exactly what I found when I came here. People were joking, telling me things, very sincere. Really this honest and sincere atmosphere that is very cool to have.

How has your experience here differed so far from working at other companies.

So I’ve worked– I didn’t have a lot of internships I only had about two or three, but yeah I’ve had quite some experiences. One of my first internships was at Institut Lumière in Lyon where the cinema was invented by the Lumière brothers and I discovered that, yeah, you can have a very interesting place to work but the work can be very boring. Then I went to a public organisation close to my hometown of Lyon in the region L’Alps where I was with the audiovisual team and I saw what it was like to work for a state agency. For public domain. It can be very dull and a lot depends on what is decided politically, so that fairly odd. After my technician degree I did an internship with an agency which developed software to manage extras for movies and it was very special cause it was during covid so it was all at a distance. Yeah, they did not leave a good impression but that’s the thing for me. I’ve always seen it as ‘this is how it is in real life’. This is real life, this is work. And that is not the kind of work I want to do. Okay, that’s not the type of agency I want to see and that’s not the type of organisation I like.

I think one of my best internships for now is here in Josworld because it’s a totally different vision of a design agency than we have in France. More human, ‘human-driven’ as they say. When I worked at an audiovisual agency in France, it was quite fun and entertaining, but a bit monotonous. Sometimes we stayed on set for five, six hours shooting a commercial for kitchens, for example, and shooting the same scene again and again.

It’s really a lot of experience that allowed me to see what I don’t want to do and let me see what I do want to do.

Of everything you have seen at Josworld is there anything in particular that jumped out to you?

Yes. It is the way of working. There is no strict hierarchy, there is no classical structure with bosses. This translates into the workplace: not a typical office space where the ‘boss’ sits in a locked office and the rest elsewhere, no, everyone here works together in one shared space. Here, everyone has a say. When they choose projects or when they review projects, it’s not the boss saying ‘okay we’ll do this, we’ll do that’. We all discuss it together and that’s really what struck me and touched me in a way. It is not about your status, it is about who you are, we are all equal, we are all human beings and it doesn’t matter if you are an accountant or a designer, you are part of the team. I really love it, just being one team with everyone.

What are you currently working on?

Right now? Several things. Right now I’m trying to develop a logo for a new federation of professionals in construction. I’m also working on some shirt designs for a campaign on the dangers of drinking. Yeah, several projects. All really varied and really interesting. As I said, sometimes you can have a bit of boring work that’s a bit of a chore but most of the time here it’s just cool projects with creative ideas and companies that want cool images. Something that pops. I think there is a great choice of projects here.

Has your experience here changes how you approach a creative project?

Yes. Yes, it’s only been two months so I didn’t really have the time to review everything but some of the advice they gave to me; Laurent gave me some advice on how to work. Additionally most of my colleagues’ feedback is the best. Client feedback is something but your coworkers’ feedback is also one of the most important things too because they’ve been here for longer than me. So when they say ‘Oh, you should enhance that’ or ‘You should rework this or that’ it’s really great advice because it’s to push the design further. More appealing, better quality. I think that’s the best thing that’s been given to me. The advice from my coworkers. It can give you good habits and good practice. You know, it remains in your mind when you have feedback like ‘Yes, this is nice but it looks like this or like that. You have to be careful, the client wants to see more of this or of that.’ For me it really stays in my mind and I take this as a real lesson. It’s really good.

On the topic of lessons, what did you learn from working here?

I really discovered the– it’s the more technical organisation with, like, plannings. I’m really fascinated by, I’m really like a workflow guy. I’m really into workflows. I love to do 3D effects so I’m just fascinated by: ‘Okay, we film the empty space then we film a matt, then we film a transparent’—so you have to have a workflow. You have to manage everything. Your files, your dossier, shooting everything. Here it’s very structured, you have a server where every file has a naming convention and a date. I really discovered that here. In some agencies you have much less structure. They just transfer everything, it’s just a mess like ‘yeah, do you have this file?’ ‘maybe I have this file on this hard drive?’ I think it’s just a mess, just a huge mess. So yeah that really changed things for me.

Also, the client relations most of all. How you take their feedback. Sometimes clients, they’re not mean, they just don’t know how to explain it perfectly. Like, ‘it’s not the right color, I don’t like this color.’ It’s not really advice, it’s more of an opinion, not really concrete feedback. So it’s important to take the feedback of the client and have the experience to know how to ask what feedback you want from them. To figure out the meaning of what they want hidden behind their words. To really take the feedback and work with them.

There’s also a very rare experience that I had recently. I had the opportunity to make this logo for the federation and sit in on the meeting with the clients. The process of finding the names with the clients, to let them participate in the process etc. It’s really important because you have to work with clients. You can work on your own if you’re an artist who just does his thing but in my case I have to cooperate with clients and it’s super important.

So that’s the kind of lesson I’m currently learning.

On working together, how has your cooperation with the team been.

The cooperation, from a technical viewpoint, is mainly via Slack. My coworkers and I message each other to ask ‘can you do this for me?’ ‘can you finish that?’ I’ve been working with Agnieszka on a motion design and we break down the video to work on it. I did a part and she did a part. I sent my part to her, she gave me feedback and I corrected it and sent her the final version. So yeah, the cooperation is very simple, standard. I’d say it’s very fluid, it flows well. They provide kind feedback that’s serious and professional. When you work together you have to say something when something isn’t good.

“Working together has made me push my design and my thinking further.”

Working with them is really a great thing. Like I said before, the feedback is not criticising. It’s more, you work on it yourself and how can we then push what you did further. Very productive criticism. It’s good to have a first idea, a first draft but sometimes you just can’t stay on that, you have to push further to develop. Choose an alternative. That’s what design is all about, you can’t just stop on idea one. You have to have a lot of them. That’s what they’ve helped me the most with, I think.

Working together has made me push my design and my thinking further. It’s a very humble team to work with.

To continue on that point. What’s the main thing you’ll take away from the experience of working here.

That’s a good question. A good question. I would say, it might sound a bit cheesy but for me this is real life inspiration. Like I said before I had a few internships in France which were not really great and really standard, really hierarchical organisations with people that don’t actually really like their jobs, I think, it’s really weird. I think the lesson I will retain from here is not to be afraid to be a bit demanding of your colleagues but in a good way. Not like harass them to do better or do it again. No, demanding in the way that you want the best thing for the company and for the client. I think it’s about this. About pushing one another further. To raise each other up, everyone grows from it.

Instead in France it’s more like everyone is pushing each other down to push themselves up. The French really like to compare themselves like, ‘yeah he’s good at this but I’m better at that and that etc.’

But yeah, that’s the two things that really inspire me here. Really the two things for me are the structure, working together, there is no boss here, everyone is the boss. Everyone is working together, it’s really democratic. And with this structure everyone can push everyone else further and grow.

I would like to reproduce this if I ever make my own company in the future, I hope. I would really like to repeat, reproduce that kind of organisation. It’s truly healthy. It’s a healthy atmosphere, healthy organisation. Healthy culture. That’s the thing I would like to reproduce. The thing we miss in France because we like to complain all the time.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Follow your dreams, work hard. You have to work hard to keep your smile. Right now I have to say I’m in a bit of a transitory phase. It’s a bit hard because right now, I’m having a really great time but in France my teachers are annoying me because they don’t want me to do internships in certain places. They don’t want me to be free to choose what to do. So yeah, in life there is your objective, your friends and family that support you and then there’s people that don’t want to support you, that are an obstacle. And they really think they’re doing a good thing but they’re stuck in their ways. A thought I’ve really been developing for the past few years is that when you’re old you’re old. You have knowledge, you can give advice, you can say ‘back in the day things were done like this’ but today things are different, you have to adapt. You have to listen to the old guys but not too much. If they put an obstacle in your way smash through it. Don’t get eaten by the old ways, you have to eat them.

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