The making of the Bastille Day poster

The Bastille Day is celebrated around the world as the day of France. Everybody is dancing, singing, eating, drinking and reading works of existentialists. As always, we start with the stereotypes: baguettes, berets, Marianne, Eiffel tower, vogue, musketeers, Boyarsky. Thousand devils!

Designer 1: A typical comic book fight, but with gallicisms. M?

Art director: Doesn’t look cool. I think we shouldn’t be afraid of slight intellectual snobbery since the occasion is not exactly trivial.

Designer 1: 0_о

All right, back to work. We have two options here: either Sartre or Disneyland. Let’s start with the more intellectually demanding one.

Designer 1: Here. Or maybe he’s already at the tower.

Art director: Let’s keep on looking. Maybe around the same topic.

Designer 1 (still impressed by the Game of Thrones): Maybe screw this intellectual snobbery? We’ve got dragons. And white-haired princesses.

Art director: I really liked the Mickey Mouse approach. Especially since they’ve got Disneyland there.

Designer 1: The strategist is plotting a cunning plan.

Art director: Fuck yeah.

Sending the idea to the project manager and to the second designer.

Project manager: All right, tell me more. What style are we going to use here? Why Mickey Mouse’s hands? Is it just a blueprint or like a military plan with all the arrows and dispositions?

Designer 1: It’s intellectual snobbery. Mickey is planning the storm of Bastille to get rid of all the competitors.

Project manager: What?

The second designer starts to draw the poster. Studying old maps of Bastille and of 18th century France.

Looking at Disneyland plans and sketches of the rides.

Admiring a young Mickey and posters of the same age.

Rebuilding Bastille from scratch. Starting with drafts of an extended escape plan. Drawing Mickey’s hands holding the map. Checking out the composition and deciding to shift the focus solely to the building plan.

Considering background. Wood and a sheet of old paper? We choose minimalism, which means concrete. Taking pictures of concrete and scanning a sheet of paper.

Assembling it all together.

Designer 2: Maybe render it in black and white?

Art director: Maybe.

Designer 2: Still, some accent wouldn’t hurt. Is this OK?

Art director: Then you might as well color our logo, too.

Suddenly noticing mistakes in our Old French, making corrections, mirroring the plan for better authenticity, adapting for typesetting and preparing an announcement.

Editor: Can you explain me what Mickey Mouse and Bastille have in common?

Designer 1: It’s intellectual snobbery, blah-blah-blah...

Editor: ******

Designer 1: At least it didn’t come to Sartre.

Editor: You know, it might have been easier to understand.