Atelier Chartier is a French based company specialised in faux painting, faux finishing and gilding techniques. Faux painting and faux finishing are terms used to describe a decorative paint finishes that replicate the appearance of materials such as marble, wood or stone. These techniques started as a form of replicating materials such as marble and wood with paint, but has subsequently come to encompass many other decorative finishes for walls and furniture including simulating recognisable textures and surfaces. Faux finishing has been used for millennia, from cave painting to the tombs of ancient Egypt, but what we generally think of as faux finishing in the decorative arts began with plaster and stucco finishes in Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago.
Atelier Chartier managing director is an old friend of mine and I wanted to make sure that the logo would work as a meaningful personal portrait of him. The fox in popular culture symbolise physical or mental responsiveness, increased awareness and ability to find your way around, to be swift in tricky situations, to have affinity with nocturnal activities and dream work. All of those connotations as well as the elegance of a fox shape and jump movement were for me the best elements to describe Atelier Chartier personality, skills and his highly finished and meticulous hand crafted work.
Business card and A6 leaflet were printed on an uncoated Fedrigoni Sirio White paper range, using a press CMYK printing technique and a solid black ink to make sure that all the texts remain particularly sharp. The font that I have chosen to accompany the logo symbol is the FF Scala, which is a modern graceful serif humanist typeface.
