Maxime Mouysset

About this artist

Maxime Mouysset left advertising in 2017 for a sunlit Paris atelier and a type-first way of drawing. HEAR in Strasbourg, two years at Havas, Alaric Garnier’s wall letters, Grillés, Quintal risographs, then a 2020 Télérama job on politics: an illustrated fish is better when someone else asks.

Gemini_Generated_Image_9k5q779k5q779k5q_

YooshiQ's Note

Back to the Index

Maxime Mouysset trained at Strasbourg’s Haute École des Arts du Rhin, then met an editorial designer at a Paris party and spent two years at Havas Sports & Entertainment. “Advertising taught me efficiency,” he says, like journalism with better snacks. In 2017 he dropped the split life and illustrated full time.

Typography is the habit. A workshop with Alaric Garnier had him painting oversized letters on walls, “instructive and fun.” He still makes custom type for personal projects, shown in the solo exhibition Grillés. Influences run from Roberto Raviola’s Necron to David Inshaw’s landscapes, the latter becoming a risograph series with Quintal Éditions. The erotic comic and the English field sit on the same shelf without asking permission.

Télérama asked him in 2020 to picture politics, a subject he found foreign. The year is 2020, not the 2019 that sometimes gets attached to the job. The images came out absurdist and a little charged. “The challenge of translating unfamiliar themes into art excites me,” he says. “An illustrated fish is better if someone else asks for it.” The studio is a former architect’s house in central Paris, sun and a terrace, exhibitions and friends nearby. “Exhibitions, concerts, friends… Paris fosters healthy creative competition,” he has said.

Strasbourg’s HEAR was the school. A Paris party was the accident that led to Havas Sports & Entertainment and two years of advertising speed. Efficiency, he says, like journalism. 2017 was the year he stopped splitting the week. Alaric Garnier’s workshop put oversized letters on walls. Grillés showed the custom type he still makes for himself. Necron by Roberto Raviola and David Inshaw’s landscapes are the odd pair; Quintal Éditions printed the Inshaw-inspired risographs.

Télérama in 2020—not 2019—asked for politics. He found the subject foreign and made images that came out absurdist and charged. The studio is a former architect’s house in central Paris, sun, a terrace. “Knowing your style is crucial,” he admits, “but so is straying from it.” Accidents stay in the method. The terrace is part of the desk. Start with the letters on the wall, then the political fish.