Graphic Illustrator Jean Jullien

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Central Saint Martins and Royal college of art graduate Jean Jullien is a celebrated graphic artist based in Paris, France. He specialises in painting and illustration and has designed for companies such as Transport for London, National Geographic and Vouge. Jullien’s distinct graphic style usually takes a comedic and light-hearted approach, commenting on themes surrounding politics, society and our relationship with technology. One of my favourites is his ‘Allo?’ exhibition displayed at the Kemistry Gallery in London, which explores humans’ experiences with living through the digital age. I like how he communicates stories through his characters using simple props and environments to provide context. His illustrations are never super detailed, yet the story and message are always clear.

Jullien’s sculptures in particular inspired this current project; Still being very illustrative, he often experiments with 2-dimensional sculptures interacting with 3-dimensional environments. One example is his most recent public art exhibition in the ‘Jardin des Plantes’, where he has colourful 2D characters interacting with objects around the park. I think its comedic, unique and similar to the route I want to take with my flattened pattern project.

Another project that inspires me is his contribution to the ‘19 chairs’ project – an artistic collaboration during the 2020 lockdown between 19 creatives who were individually tasked with reinterpreting a chair design (provided by the Butterfield Brothers). Jullien’s entry (displayed above) was a painted 2D body laid over a wooden chair frame, stating on the official 19 chairs website that the idea was ‘to translate visually the feeling you get when you’re really tired and finally find a good seat to sit on.’ I really love how this looks and appreciate the simplicity of the materials, plus felt inspired by how the flat body was manipulated by the uneven surface of the chair. I feel this could be interesting to consider when designing my monument, as maybe I could place my illustration on more dynamic surfaces like stairs to create a more unique effect.

Project 3 Research

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