Mensa France · Contacts Magazine · Issue 253 · Autumn 2016
Mensa France Interview — “J’ai toujours dessiné”
In 2016, Contacts, the magazine of Mensa France, interviewed me about drawing, illustration, design, life as an independent creative and the logo I had created for Mensa International’s 2017 Board meeting in Nice.
In 2016, Contacts, the magazine of Mensa France, interviewed me about drawing, illustration, design, life as an independent creative and the logo I had created for Mensa International’s 2017 Board meeting in Nice.
Mensa is an international high-IQ society with national organisations around the world. Mensa France publishes Contacts, its member magazine, covering society, ideas, culture and the activities of its members. https://www.mensa.org
Read the original interview PDF →
“J’ai toujours dessiné”
The interview begins with something fairly simple: I have always drawn.
I started submitting cartoons to the Swiss satire magazine Nebelspalter as a teenager. My first published drawings appeared there in 1983, when I was sixteen, and by eighteen I was working from my own studio in Zurich.
From there the work expanded into editorial illustration, advertising, publishing, character design, graphic design and eventually animation.
Zurich, New York, California and France
The conversation also followed the geographical side of the career: Zurich, New York and California before settling in southern France.
By the time of the interview, I had been living in the Pic Saint-Loup region north of Montpellier for about a decade while continuing to work with clients in several countries.
That combination — an international client base and a studio in a small wine-growing area of the Hérault — was one of the subjects we discussed in the interview.
The IBD 2017 logo
A central subject of the article was the logo I created for the Mensa International Board of Directors meeting in Nice in October 2017.
The project called for an emblem that could identify the event clearly while retaining some personality. It sits naturally within the part of my work that combines illustration, symbols, characters and graphic identity.
For related commissioned identity work, see Logo Design & Mascot Design.
Subjects from the interview
- drawing and cartooning from childhood onward
- the first published Nebelspalter cartoons at sixteen
- setting up a studio in Zurich while still very young
- working in New York and later California
- early Google Doodle work and the Sydney 2000 Kangaroodle
- mascot, character and product illustration
- moving to southern France while continuing to work internationally
- the realities of working independently as an illustrator and designer
Mensa across several countries
The interview also touched on my own connection with Mensa through New York, Switzerland, Los Angeles and France.
“Being a Mensan doesn’t mean you can’t be foolish!”
That line probably sums up the relationship between curiosity and cartooning rather well.
Read the original interview
The complete feature is available as a PDF scan of the original Contacts magazine pages.
Since the interview
The interview dates from 2016. I continue to work from the Pic Saint-Loup region, now from my studio in Claret, on illustration, animation, visual identities, character design and editorial projects for clients in France and internationally.
For a broader selection of current work, see the Case Studies or About.
