Graphic design and children : “They lived children ever after and had many happily !”

"Children are wonderful"

Yes, we've heard that a lot. But adults who act like children are even more wonderful. Let me explain.

Tag in the corner of our Lyon office, a good illustration of this article ("They lived children ever after and had many happily")

Breton is in the air

Not that rolling around on the floor of a supermarket is particularly marvellous for an adult; but to be able to detach oneself from what people say and from the laws of physics is rare enough to be highlighted, especially when it comes to creation.

Creation that is free of morality and close to the world of children reminds me of a definition of surrealism that I came up with at the end of a project on André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto.

Surrealism, while inviting us to free ourselves from the constraints imposed by reason and morality, is not a regression to childhood. It is about creating without constraints, as a young child would, but with adult thoughts. Which explains why so many Surrealists created erotic drawings (see the illustrations below)...

Above: Exquisite corpse by A. Breton, Y. Tanguy, M Duhamel, M. Morise - 1926

Above: Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of the Civil War, Dalí - 1934

A design that hits the bull's eye

And what about the opposite process, delving into your childlike soul to come up with an adult drawing?
A number of artists have played the game.

Leonardo/Ericailcane, drawings from 1985 reprinted in 2008.

There's a bit of surrealism in the exercise, but the aim here is to delve back into his childhood memories for a stylistic exercise 20 years on. The constraint is to disregard his adult thoughts, while retaining his know-how. A return to the past with a little more technique!

We dare you! In the meantime, here's a glimpse of Leonardo/Ericailcane's work.

Draw me a sheep in 3D

The artist Telmo had fun taking his childhood drawings and converting them into 3D images. Creatures and unidentified flying objects in perspective. We love the zany contrast with the realistic aspect:

The faceless

Let's take some more and start a new exercise. Zoom in on the artistic work of the photos published in Kiblind, reminiscent of the surrealist work of Magritte and his faceless men. Photos that Adèle, who was just 3 at the time, naturally fell in love with.

More details in the article devoted to her: Portrait of a child.

Adèle's touch above, Magritte's visuals below.

Surrealist advertising

To conclude, here's a little advertising digression totally inspired by surrealism, in this case Magritte's 'Rape' (which was on the cover of André Breton's book!). The aim of this advertising campaign for Influencia magazine is to denounce 'infobesity'. The result is striking !

Finally, if you like design by children, you'll love this article on the Tokyo Olympic Games logos as seen by children. Or this typographic pom-pom workshop!