{"id":34044,"date":"2016-12-14T08:24:18","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T06:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/graphic-design-en\/cassandre-le-magnifique-graphiste"},"modified":"2023-03-21T11:47:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T10:47:57","slug":"cassandre-the-magnificient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grapheine.com\/en\/history-of-graphic-design\/cassandre-the-magnificient","title":{"rendered":"The Great Cassandre 1901\/1968"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We continue the series of great names in graphic design<\/a> with the portrait of a giant of graphic design in France.<\/p>\n

Cassandre, the man who burned his wings on typography (1901-1968)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron is a french graphic designer, typographer, poster designer, theatre designer, lithographer and painter<\/strong> from the interwar period. He was born in Kharkov in Ukraine at the beginning of the century, in 1901. His parents being of French origin, he comes to study in Paris where he will settle definitively in 1915. He committed suicide in June 1968.\u00a0The story tells that we would have found a letter of refusal for his last typographic creation next to his body.<\/p>\n

It all began at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he enrolled in free painting workshops. He then studied with Lucien Simon and at the Julian Academy.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that his first creations date back to 1921, but no traces remain. This desire to create comes to him when he participates in a poster competition for Michelin where he will win third place. In 1923 he officially presented his first great work AU BUCHERON, under the pseudonym Cassandre. This poster made him a famous man; in 1925 it earned him the grand prize at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, despite the violent criticism made of him in \"L'esprit nouveau\", a magazine in which Le Corbusier defended his theses.<\/p>\n

\"ob_ed7d80_cassandre\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fruit of chance or sign of fate, he will meet Charles Peignot during this exhibition. Son of Georges Peignot, at the origin of the foundry G.Peignot et Fils, jewel of the French typography of the time. It is there that he will imagine typographies such as Bifur<\/strong> or Acier<\/strong>, which we will return to below.<\/p>\n

In 1931 he takes the direction of the Graphic Alliance, which will publish its own posters. At the same time he creates all the designs and layouts for NICOLAS stores.<\/p>\n

In 1933 he began a new activity; that of theatre painter, at the same time that he worked as a teacher at the National School of Decorative Arts.<\/p>\n

At that time he formed with\u00a0Carlu<\/a>,\u00a0Colin<\/a>, and\u00a0Loupot<\/a> those who were called the \"Musketeers of graphic design\". They were emeritus members of the Union des Artistes<\/strong> Modernes<\/strong> (UMA<\/strong>), which brought together the end of late French creation in the 1920s and whose key words were order, colour and geometry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then followed posters, paintings, marriages, successes, failures, moves to finally end on a tragic suicide on June 17, 1968... Rumors say that Cassandre was a depressive man, and that he decided to end his days when his typography, \"La Cassandre\" was not published. To die for a character, what an idea!<\/p>\n

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We always start with a \"little white\" at Peignot<\/h2>\n

Detour by the foundry G.Peignot et Fils, which is nothing less than one of the most illustrious French foundries of the last centuries, sometimes even qualified as legendary.\u00a0The company took the name G.Peignot et Fils when in 1898 Gustave Peignot donated the company to his children, before dying a year later.\u00a0His son Georges took things in hand by directing the white foundry towards character<\/strong> production<\/strong>; success was not long in coming and sales soared.<\/p>\n

Now, normally, you'd wonder what a white<\/strong> foundry<\/strong> is.\u00a0As much as the term foundry probably does not need an explanation, so much a foundry of whites can leave one wondering. I confess, I totally didn't know that word. To enlighten you, these are the \"whites\" between the words and lines, in the margins, etc. Whites that require a high degree of precision (dials, line spacing, etc.).<\/p>\n

In 1842, Pierre Leclerc, the founder of what was to become the Peignot foundry, invented a process that made it possible, instead of cutting whites, to pour them into moulds, which increased their precision. An innovation that doesn't seem like much, but it's a bit the equivalent of switching from Xpress 1.0 to Indesign 5.0.<\/p>\n

It was not until two generations later that Georges Peignot successfully tried his hand at \"blacks\" by creating his first characters. The foundry's reputation continues to grow. The Great War left only one \"Peignot\" on his feet, Charles, who met Cassandre in 1923.<\/p>\n

\"A.M.Cassandre_2\"<\/p>\n

\"A.M.Cassandre_6\"<\/p>\n

\"A.M.Cassandre_5\"<\/p>\n

A man's work<\/h2>\n

Cassandre produces a striking poster style that synthesizes futurism, post-cubism, surrealism and Art Nouveau. Typographies, monograms, posters... A limitless imagination.<\/p>\n

\"ysl-yves-saint-laurent-monogramme\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

The monogram monomaniac!<\/h3>\n

Among the plethora of what he could imagine, the YSL monogram<\/strong> remains probably one of his most famous works even today.<\/p>\n

Made in 1961 at the request of Saint Laurent, the three intertwined initials were the one and only proposal made by Cassandre to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berg\u00e9 during a meeting in a Parisian restaurant. A proposal immediately accepted because according to Pierre Berg\u00e9 \"Cassandre was the greatest, the best graphic designer of his time.\u00a0He had drawn Christian Dior's acronym, he was forgotten. \u00bb.<\/p>\n

Let us not forget that for Cassandre the drawing must be based on the text<\/strong> and not the reverse. He himself says that this monogram \"was designed to age at the same pace as the stones on Avenue Marceau<\/em>\" (the street where the Pierre Berg\u00e9 - Yves Saint Laurent Foundation is located today). There is a very vertical, lively design, in which the elegance and modernity of Saint Laurent are perfectly combined.<\/p>\n

Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet?<\/h3>\n

In the form of a triptych, the mythical Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet<\/strong> is a bit the ancestor of the animated gif ! A simple and poetic visual narration, coated with a humorous tone. We see a silhouette turning black as the sequence Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet. Some tend to say that it is these gestures and traits that have given rise to the image we have of the aperitif in our region. Cheers, Cassandra!<\/p>\n

\"dubonnet-670x293\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Below: Cassandre's sketches.
\nSource:\u00a0www.cassandre.fr\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Evin law in France would prohibit this type of alcohol promotion today, but that did not prevent this poster from becoming a cult image, taken up and quoted by each generation of graphic designers. One can quote the spanish studio\u00a0Atipo<\/a> who had fun rephotographing the famous sequence for the promotion of their character \"Cassannet\" in homage to Cassandre.<\/p>\n

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