Growing up in Paris, France, Alexandre Cornet loved drawing. As a child, he would read comics and watch cartoons, fascinated by the illustrations. At the age of 11, childhood drawings transformed into graffiti, and while living by an abandoned train station, he would watch people paint words in colors. This keen interest at such a young age meant there was only one thing for him to do with his life, and Cornet became an internationally recognized artist.

Cornet’s reputation as a visual artist, designer, and art director had led to a lot of success in his career. He has had his own exhibitions, as well as worked with large companies to help define the visual aspect of their brand. Currently, Cornet resides in Lima, Peru, and while working with on the advertising campaign for the Toulouse Lautrec Institute for Design (TLS), the entire city was able to see his artwork.

“The concept of the campaign was the promotion of creativity, and that is why I wanted to work on it,” said Cornet. “It feels like an honour to have had my work displayed everywhere around town and that the campaign was a success and that it served to bring more people towards a creative career.”

As an artist, promoting creativity and encouraging others to attend to school and follow in Cornet’s footsteps was important to him. This idea motivated him from the beginning, and the creative area of the university’s marketing department was already a fan of Cornet’s work. They wanted him to incorporate his drawings into the skies of wide angle photographs that they had taken previously.

“I liked to be able to intervene photography and to create artwork of massive impact, some panels were about 14 meters wide placed at key intersections in the city,” he said.

To accomplish this vision, Cornet created digital illustrations featuring single characters, doing one action in particular for its easy understanding. He mainly used the color palette from the brand identity guidelines, and respected their rules for the design and layout of the branding and copy. He used an easy urban style with black outlines for easy impact and to connect with the primary target of the campaign; young adults who just finished high school and have some interest into a creative career.

“The panels had to stand out, be seen and understood in the glimpse of an eye at high traffic spots. I had to simplify and focus on the idea they had to transmit. Using colors and shapes in the best manner to fit and contrast with the photographs and the copy,” described Cornet. “I also had to complete the artwork in a record timeline, being the first time the marketing department was acting as its own advertising agency they kept trying different ideas and options.”

This ended up being easy for Cornet to overcome, as he worked director with Jean Paul Du Bois, the chief of marketing, acting as a creative director, and Lorena Solari, the sales manager. Du Bois had previously worked with Cornet, and knew he would capture the essence of the university and bring his own creative aspect to the campaign.

“I had worked with Alex before on two short films that were directed by me. His art contribution and compromise involve high quality standards that were fundamental to achieve a good finishing and to be recognized by the Peruvian Culture Ministry and other festivals around the world,” said Du Bois. “As the Head of Marketing of the Toulouse Lautrec Institute of Design, I hired him to illustrate the advertisement campaign “Some People See Reality, Others Change It,” which needed an unusual point of view, and Alex helped us to reach the pieces with high visual impact. It’s always been stimulating, at the moment of the brainstorming interesting points of view appear. His creative contribution and compromise to get quality on what he does makes him a trustworthy person on any job.”

Cornet previously worked on other campaigns for the college. In the middle of 2015, the Toulouse Lautrec Institute of Design produced the social media campaign “Career” to promote the careers that the Institute had. Cornet made a series of illustrations on digital collage through the Digital Agency Performance Group. He also designed posts of each Institute’s career for a new Instagram campaign, with great success.

As if coming full circle, it is without a doubt that Cornet’s artwork continues to inspire the next generation of artists to study and live their dream.