Between bottle labels, the Glougueule blog and the Mimi, Fifi & Glouglou comic strips, this true city dweller and natural wine enthusiast talks to Athenaeum about his career, his encounters, his cellar and his projects…
How did you become a graphic designer?
A family heritage, if you like. My grandfather was in the cardboard and advertising publishing business on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris. Along with others, he had created a trade as an intermediary between printers and luxury advertisers. So he recruited designers and artists for this family workshop, which my father later took over. His clientele included department stores, jewellers, confectioners and… champagnes and cognacs. That said, at home, although my parents drank, they weren’t keen on wine. So, by atavism, I went to the École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques to be trained in various image-related disciplines: drawing, illustration, typography, etc. When I left there in 1982, I very quickly set up my own business. It was more in line with my way of seeing things…
And what about wine?
At the same time as I was studying, I started to take an interest in wine. I liked bistros, restaurants… It was like an attraction. Wine is such a wonderful product. Berries that ferment to produce an extraordinary range of aromas: it’s a fascinating alchemy. So, little by little, I made friends with my local wine merchant, who introduced me to a number of winegrowers over a series of lunches and tastings. And that was it…
Weren’t you talking about natural wines then?
No, not yet. In Paris in the 1980s, the owners of a number of wine bars set out to explore the whole of France, with no blinkers on, in search of quality and fewer inputs. It was the era of the Café de la Nouvelle Mairie, the Envierges, the Chansons… The beginnings of natural wines.
Which winegrower was the first to call on you for his labels?
The very first was Charles Guerbois, in Touraine. He’s stopped now, to get some height: he became an aviator. He was closely followed by one of his friends, Pierre Breton. I met him by chance. He was riding around Paris on his little motorbike. I’ve done a lot of things with him and Catherine since then…
What pleasures do you find in this activity?
There are many. First of all, it gave me something to focus on. Beyond that, the winegrowers fascinate me. They’re the opposite of me, who’s fiercely urban. They are convinced peasants, living in nature, trying to organise it… Better still, they are somehow wizards who manage to produce absolute delights. Because, concepts and dogmas aside, wine is made to be good!
How do you go about creating a label?
Initially, this work was done very simply, on a corner of a table, in a bistro, a restaurant… That’s how the winegrowers asked me to do it. They didn’t really know what else to do. And they needed labels. Wine and image have always gone hand in hand. Today, it’s different every time. Each winemaker has his own character, his own wines… I modestly try to serve them and dress up their products with ideas, images… The first contacts that drinkers have with the wines in question.
You say that Burgundy is a difficult region to work with…
My ‘rock’n’roll’ labels are more suited to winemakers who need to shout as loudly as possible to make themselves heard. But in the case of Burgundy, where the vineyards have reached such an apogee, there is more to lose than to gain by adopting this kind of style. Here, certain codes are established. Good manners prevail…
Does this explain the ‘wisdom’ of the labels you designed for Fanny Sabre?
Wisdom: yes and no. These labels also reflect a gentle madness. It’s a bit like a reflection of what I think I understood about her. In this particular case, I wanted to respect Burgundian codes, but with strong colours. A label must be easy to spot amongst the others. It has to stand out from the crowd. I’m convinced of that.
Your life isn’t just about wine labels. There’s also your blog Glougueule and your comic strips Mimi, Fifi & Glouglou: how did they come about?
Glougueule was the result of an encounter with Philippe Quesnot, the author of Trente nuances de gros rouge. You may have read it… I hope you have. If not, just as well: you’ll have the pleasure of reading him. A very, very funny guy, a great lover of natural wines, among other things, and, at the same time, a great fan of comic strips, to the point of being friends with a number of cartoonists. We were bound to meet. The result was a double exhibition in Nice in 2003, followed by a series of silly puns, ‘Tu peux r’boire’ meetings, ‘Ivre au chai’ T-shirts and a blog, Glougueule, which had to be fed very quickly. Philippe would take photos of sweet, crazy winegrowers wearing fake glasses and caption them. As for me, when I wasn’t trying to imitate him – by doing less well – I published a few illustrations. After a while, I came up with the idea of doing a comic strip for the blog, in the style of my nephew Pierre Mortel. If, on a paper version, a whole page is displayed before your eyes, on the screen, the boxes appear one after the other. I found this dynamic interesting. The surprise effect can be total. I scribbled down three characters, came up with their names… I published more or less regularly. People liked it. Enough so that Sabine Bucquet from Éditions de l’Épure suggested I publish a first comic strip, then a second and finally a third.
And, in this particular case, where did your inspiration come from?
I’ve been in the business for a number of years, meeting wine and restaurant professionals all the time. I listen, I observe and I digest. Or at least I try to… Winemakers can tell you black and white. Sometimes they take completely opposite paths to achieve the same result. The tasters deserve some credit too. Their judgements, sometimes a little confused, sometimes very assertive, surprise me, even make me laugh…
Since its creation, Glougueule has opened up to many artists other than yourself…
Yes, that was our intention from the start. And then, as I said, Philippe has lots of friends who are wonderful cartoonists: Lefred-Thouron, Hervé Baru, Jacques Ferrandez, Emmanuel Guibert, Daniel Goossens, René Pétillon and so on… Quesnot often takes on the task of educating them about wine, as supplier and initiator. For my part, I find myself in the position of artistic director, working with people I respect a little too much. It’s not always easy… When they have carte blanche, no problem. But when I have to guide them, that’s not what I prefer…
What kind of wine lover are you?
I like very different things. The surprise factor. What’s more, my tastes are constantly evolving. At the moment, I’m very keen on easy-drinking, infused wines – I’m thinking of a great Gamay from the Jura – but sometimes I want more depth and structure. In an ideal world, I’d like to drink only very, very good wines, but unfortunately they’re too expensive…
And what’s new?
Volume 4 of Mimi, Fifi & Glouglou is in the pipeline. I was thinking of stopping at 3, but then I changed my mind: I’m having too much fun doing this…