How did you become a designer?
I’m not specifically calling myself a designer but rather as a craftswoman who has adapted an objet to be practical, enjoyable and nice.
After many years traveling without finding the perfect city guide, I found many drawbacks with those I bought : heavy, boring, not very tested and approved by people who likes the things I like, too small for e week, too big for a city break… So I wanted to created mine, the perfect match with my travel requirements and usability that a city guide must have. I started to craft one, with a lot of different kind of papers, and then I asked to paper experts, as Fedrigoni, to find the perfect paper for my project. My city-guide will be an illustrated map on one side, and have the addresses & texts on the verso
; it will be fold and defold hundred times, and I wanted to keep it for years. I choosed a Long Life paper, used for archive, with 25% of cotton on it in order to fold and unfold without breaking the paper. Once the trip finished, the map can be ironed and it turns into a poster to frame and hang. A way to upcylce a travel souvenir.
I build a card board to protect it and show little part of it : a window of a tiny illustration of the City.

How would you define your design vision, your style?
Design must make sens, and be beautiful to me. For my brand, it was about shaping travel ideas and concept into visuals. The product became the travel. The products became my brand. In order to make my city guide more appealing, I found the idea of making it look like a chocolate tab. Everyone likes chocolate : it can be exotic, warming, comforting… so my city guide and his design will be according to travel. I like to mix cultures, making a nice object from a simple City Guide. I like to create experiences and adventure while the traveler are discovering my illustrated maps of a town, because they will see a city through my eyes, thanks to the 100 of icons I choosed to draw. I love to bring travelers with me, to my world.

For the future, what are your professional projects?
I’m working on a lot of projets. First a Finistère Guide, in north French brittany, to dream about wild landscapes and ocean food, that I want different from the classic guides, more modern. Then I will develop multiple notebooks about colour, papers, and illustrators to bring new fresh ideas in the stationary area. Finally, I’ve got a big project for my website, working on travelling souvenirs and a complete rebuild of it.

What do you like the most in your job ?
To be manager of myself and of my ideas

You can discover her on Instagram : julie.flamingo