Air France - French Riviera - Villemot

While many posters promoting travel to the French Riviera showcase the scenic beaches, this lively poster by Bernard Villemot for Air France instead instills the vivacity of the busy port towns along this famous shoreline. Modern cars zip past a bustling square overlooking the water, with casinos and boats in the distance. Above it all proudly flies an Air France jet. This is the English variant of this poster. Bernard Villemot (1911-1989) was one of the foremost poster artists in the 1960’s and 1970’s, known for his innovative design and use of color. Born into a bourgeoisie family, his artistic pursuit was encouraged by his father, who was a well-known cartoonist. Villemot received training at the famous L’Ecole Paul, a school for poster artists founded and taught by famed poster artist Paul Colin. To many, he represents the end of the age when most of the poster designers were trained artists. As the world began to shift in the 1960s towards ad agencies and graphic design impleme