La Fabrique d’Etienne Robial

La Fabrique d’Etienne Robial -The house of Etienne Robial, a seasoned collector, is full of objects found here and there, of various eras, forms and uses, which echo his multiple graphic and editorial adventures. Through his practice, he has considerably evolved the field of graphic design and visual arts in France by setting up a transversal approach in which geometry, the concern for legibility and
balance constitute the backbone. In this interview, he talks about his training, his taste for collections, his career as a comic book editor and his work on visual identities.

Born in 1945, Etienne Robial is one of those people who seem to have lived several lives in one. He began his career in 1970 as an art director, and later became a bookseller before founding Futuropolis, a publishing house specialized in comics, which he ran until 1994. Inventor of the concept of television packaging, he has designed the visual identities of several television channels (Canal+, M6, La Sept, RTL9), newspapers and magazines (Les Inrockuptibles, L’Équipe, Télérama) and various institutions and companies (PSG, CNC, Unifrance). General artistic director of Canal+ for twenty-five years, he now teaches at the Penninghen school, runs the production company On/off and is also a member of the International Graphic Alliance.