Interview with Léa Chassagne, illustrator and art director // LISAA Alumni

Léa Chassagne graduated in Graphic Design from LISAA Paris in 2009. She joined LISAA after a foundation year at the Atelier de Sèvres. An illustrator and art director, she counts Stratégies, Le Monde, L’Obs and Albin Michel among her clients and is preparing an exhibition of her personal illustration work for May 2017.

LISAA: CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH YOUR CAREER?

Léa: After I graduated in Graphic Design from LISAA, I undertook a two-month work placement at Leg Agency, after which I continued as a freelance assistant art director for four years. During those four years, I worked for six months in a team at the Fullsix group. When Gabriel Gaultier, founder of Leg Agency, left the Havas group to launch Jésus Agency, I followed him and undertook freelance projects for his new agency. Since 2013 I have been working for this agency, which has since become Jésus et Gabriel.

Alongside this, for the last two years I have been focussing more on my illustrations. I have been part of the Illustrissimo agency since 2012 and gradually I have needed more time to respond to orders that people have commissioned.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR STYLE?

I work in digital collage on Photoshop. I mix all kinds of images – engravings, old and modern photos, illustrations, paintings, 3-D…

Depending on the images that I use, my style might vary. I create pictures that are more or less vintage, and more or less close to painting depending on the subject and the support. But I try to always remain unusual, poetic and lighthearted!

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR DESIGNS?

The people commissioning the work, nature, fashion, mythology, classical painting, African painters, album covers, surrealism, the 1950s… a little bit of everything really…!

HOW DOES ONE GET INTO THE FIELD OF ILLUSTRATION IN AN INDEPENDENT CAPACITY?

For my part, it was down to meeting the right people. Michel Lagarde, my agent, introduced me to Lamia, the director of the Slow Gallery.

Then it’s a question of working. You must always have things to show when you meet the right people, so you have to work even (and especially) when you don’t have work commissioned.