François Royer

I'd like you to meet François Royer, a French graphic designer, musician, art teacher and founder of Stanker and Motxo Design. He also happens to be a magician.
A magician? You mean you don't believe in magic? Well, have a look at this


Close your eyes, count to ten, now open them. Ta-da!

Yello 2

Fat Bob

Fat Blu

See what I mean? Sheer magic! None of your hocus pocus, abracadabra kind of stuff though. It takes more than a quick wave of a wand to produce these beauties.

Louize Royal

Imagine the amount of time it takes to create one of these pieces. Imagine the physical work involved, the cleaning, stripping, cutting, assembling, painting, waxing and varnishing. These babes (they all have a name) certainly do not emerge from their hidden form overnight. And then there's the actual design. Just how many original, eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing pieces of furniture can you produce from a barrel? Click your mouse over here and here to see some of this magic with your own eyes. Amazing isn't it? A new, unusual and functional work of art, time after time. There's just no stopping his imagination!

François created his first Stanker back in 2003. He was working in Paris as an art teacher at the time and had been asked to clear out the school's garage full of scrap metal and a huge pile of rubbish. A firm believer in recycling, François couldn't bring himself to throw it away and the idea of inventing something new from the discarded and old took form. He made his first piece, "N° 0", from an oil barrel and the wheels of a supermarket trolley. Stanker was born.

François' creativity knows no bounds. Each reclaimed barrel is sanded and sculpted to produce a stylish masterpiece with its own personality.


Through his new design company Motxo (pronounced Mo-cho), François experiments with other reprocessed and recycled materials. One-of-a-kind pieces are produced in limited series or as prototypes.

Miss Laden

Z chair

Stanker designed 65 unique pieces of furniture for Kreyol Factory, (the first big exhibition of contemporary Creole art) in Paris this year, once again displaying an impressive imagination and certain je-ne-sais-pas-quoi that make his work so magical.

If you live in and around Montpellier, pop in to Art Maniac to see some of François' work. He will also be taking part in the Résonance exhibition at la Scierie in Montpellier from 1-10 October. Magic? Seeing is believing!

As a final note, I'd just like to say that François is an old neighbour, Dylan's former but favourite art teacher and a really nice guy. Can't wait to see what he pulls out of his black hat next!