The Factory of Etienne Robial

Editor, graphic designer, art director, visual manipulator, but maybe Above all a typographer and letter painter, Étienne Robial is one of those who have significantly evolved the field of graphic design and the arts visuals since the 1970s. During his career, he has been an editor and co-creator of Futuropolis editions, artistic director of Canal + since its creation and for 25 years, imagined numerous television designs, he has designed numerous identity systems for brands and institutions (M6, PSG, Bercy, CNC) and established numerous charters for the press (Les Inrocks, L'Équipe). Inventor of the concept of television dressing, he then applied his method to other channels and TV show credits. Co-founder in 1982 from the production company On/off, he produced the television designs from Canal+ (1984), Sept (1986), M6 (1987), Show tv (1991), RTL then RTL9 (1994-1995), Canal+ (1995) and numerous credits for other channels. Specialist in scalable graphics systems, zero numbers for the press, he has produced the models of many newspapers for the press. In this interview, he looks back on the founding moments of his career by taking paths diverted. Thus, he evokes his encounter with design through a passion precocious for dominoes and paper hens, then his discovery of Bauhaus and typography through his monomaniacal collecting activity. Étienne Robial opens the doors of his workshop to us and describes in detail how he managed to change our understanding of design. He returns at length about his career as a comic book publisher with Futuropolis (which he co-founded in 1972), his work on identity systems and his long experience as an artistic director for television. The work, illustrated with around fifty color photographs, will provide to see some representative examples of the work of Étienne Robial and will integrate several unpublished archive documents.