Jury Member for the ESMA Grand Prix Illustration Concept Art 2026
It was a pleasure to take part as a jury member for the Grand Prix Illustration Concept Art 2026 at ESMA Montpellier, held on 17 and 18 June 2026.
The Grand Prix marks the end of the Illustration Concept Art students’ course of study. Over two days, the final-year students presented the result of several years of work: first through oral presentations, then through fully staged project displays in the large studio at the Écoles Créatives campus in central Montpellier.
Public exhibition: the final Illustration Concept Art projects will also be shown at Halle Tropisme in Montpellier. Event details here: Exposition Illustration Concept Art – Narration Visuelle.
As an illustrator, creative director, cartoonist and teacher at ESMA Montpellier in the 3D Animation & VFX Master’s programme, it was especially interesting to be invited onto the jury for the Illustration Concept Art graduation projects. I work with students in a different department, but many of the questions are closely related: how to build a coherent visual world, how to make a character hold together, how to use drawing in service of a story, and how to move from personal taste toward a professional visual language.
For the students, the format is useful and slightly unforgiving. It is not enough to produce attractive images. They have to explain the logic of the project, defend the visual decisions, show how the pieces belong together, and make the work readable to people seeing it for the first time. That is close to professional reality, and probably healthier than pretending that good images explain themselves.
Projects as complete visual worlds
The strongest presentations were not simply collections of finished artwork. They were built as complete visual worlds: characters, locations, books, objects, graphic systems, staging, mood and narrative direction working together. That is where illustration and concept art become more than style. They become a way of organizing a project so that other people can enter it, understand it and imagine it continuing.
What interested me most was the shift from individual images to complete project thinking. Several stands showed not only drawing ability, but decisions: how the material was sequenced, how the viewer was meant to approach it, how books, props, framed pieces or character elements supported the same universe rather than competing for attention.
A jury drawn from illustration, concept art and publishing
The jury brought together professionals from several related fields: illustration, concept art, children’s publishing, comics, storyboard and art direction. That range of viewpoints is important. A project can be strong in drawing but weak in presentation, visually rich but narratively unclear, technically impressive but difficult to read. Looking at the work from several professional angles gives the students a more useful form of feedback.
I was pleased to be part of a jury alongside Gaëlle Hersent, Hervé Groussin, Pauline Comis, Romain Laforet, Alexis Vynckier and Cyndie Poulin. The discussions were serious, generous and very much centered on the work itself.
A strong graduating class
The overall level of the projects was high. There was a visible amount of work in the stands, but also a good degree of maturity in the way many students had built and presented their universes. Some projects were intimate and book-led, others closer to worldbuilding, animation or concept development. The better ones had a clear internal logic. You could see where the student had made decisions instead of simply accumulating material.
The first prize went to Maya Courgey-Moreaux for Le Prieuré de l’Oranger, édition illustrée. The second prize went to Marianna Alexandrova for André crée son vitrail. Two very different projects, both showing a strong sense of visual authorship and presentation.
That kind of presentation is a useful threshold for students leaving an art-school environment. A professional project has to survive first contact. It needs to be legible before it is explained, and stronger once it is explained. Several of the presentations managed that balance well.
Exhibition at Halle Tropisme
The students’ projects will be shown at Halle Tropisme in Montpellier from 1 to 3 July 2026. The opening is scheduled for Wednesday 1 July at 18:30, Place des Résidents. The students will be present to show their work and discuss their projects with visitors.
Halle Tropisme is one of Montpellier’s important creative and cultural venues, and it is located directly next to the ESMA and CinéCréatis campus at Écoles Créatives. That makes it a natural public setting for the final Illustration Concept Art projects after the jury presentations at ESMA.
For anyone interested in illustration, concept art, visual development or young creative work in Montpellier, it should be worth seeing. More information about the venue: Halle Tropisme.
ESMA’s article about the event can be read here: Grand Prix Illustration Concept Art 2026 – deux jours pour révéler des univers d’exception.
Related work
This event connects naturally with several areas of my own work: editorial and educational illustration, comics, sequential illustration and visual storytelling, and character and mascot design.
