[the Lines of the Hand]
Episode 10 – Éric Pillault, artistic director, graphic designer, and photographer

In this new episode, we follow the lines of Éric Pillault’s hand. An artistic director, graphic designer, and photographer based between Paris and Kyoto, Éric Pillault began his career in the French press, spending 20 years at Jalouse, GQ, and M, le magazine du Monde, for which he created the graphic identity in 2011. Since 2020, he has been the artistic director of the publishing house Les Arènes, whilst continuing a creative approach that combines graphic design and photography.

Éric Pillault has a deep connection with Japan, fuelled by his admiration for its craftsmanship. For the exhibition Beyond our Horizons—presented in Tokyo in autumn 2025 and on show in a reimagined version at la Galerie du 19M until 26 April 2026—he devised a visual identity based on a system of coloured, textured forms symbolising the five elements, a graphic and sensitive bridge between France and Japan.

In this episode, Éric Pillault reflects on his career, his view of printmaking as a collective craft, the memory of the craft inherited from his family, and his vision of a creative process where the hand—whether drawing, composing, or assembling—remains inseparable from culture, deep time, and teamwork.