René Gruau : La ligne de l'élégance — École de Condé
INFOS

Editorial design
2018
Format: 25 x 31cm

Book design of the fictional exhibition 'René Gruau: La Ligne de l'Élégance'.

Graduation project as part of the Graphic Design Degree - Major in Print at École de Condé, Paris
ABOUT
René Gruau is a major artist in the history of fashion and graphic design. His partnerships with haute couture house, international brands and magazines have brought him to the fashion advertising and visual communication worldwide stage. Nicknamed ‘the last of the great fashion illustrators’, Gruau leaves behind a visual legacy that still seduces today’s fashion world. After the ‘Christian Dior: Couturier du rêve’ 2018 exhibition, I imagined that the Musée des Arts Décoratifs decided to launch the exhibition ‘La Ligne de l’Élégance’ (The Line of Elegance) presenting René Gruau’s world and his outsanding lifelong work. As a result, I realized the fictional catalog exhibition as an opportunity for the public to explore the artist’s universe, which is often disconnected from the work of Christian Dior and the great designers with whom Gruau collaborated. The catalog is presented in the form of a fine book using glossy and grainy papers. Some of the illustrations are printed on tracing paper to evoke the idea of fluidity ‘that embodies elegance’ as the fashion illustrator said. To capture his universe, I wanted to highlight one of the most striking feature of his style: complementarity - in other words this artistic technique that juggles between simplicity and sophistication, between figuration and abstraction, between sensuality and purity. I chose a visual identity system to emphasize the artist’s paradoxical style: the simplicity of his line drawings makes his sketches sophisticated. The main objective of this editorial project was to take a fresh look at fashion through illustration.
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