Her name isn’t widely known. Yet her illustrations have become part of our collective imagination. For 40 years, Béatrice Urseau has been designing for brands. The little chalets overlooking “RicheMonts on a raclette cheese packaging? That’s the one. Raspberries in a yoghurt pot on a packet of powdered sugar Saint-Louis ? That’s the one. This figure holding flowers on a bag of La Tisanière ? It’s her again. If she doesn’t make the logo itself, she contributes to the visuals that surround it. Sometimes she invents them on her own, sometimes she remodels them. “teamwork as she likes to call it. As marketing pushes us to constantly renew ourselves, and the rights granted are not eternal, some of her works met with a certain success before disappearing.

“I don’t exhibit in galleries, but in supermarkets!”laughs the illustrator “freelance from Saint-Nazaire. Born in this port town in the Loire-Atlantique region, it was at the age of 18 that this drawing enthusiast managed to get into one of the best art schools, the École Estienne. “I had left my province and landed in Paris”.recalls with emotion the sixty-something who returned to live in her hometown at the time of the confinement. The only member of her family to embark on an artistic career, she knew absolutely nothing about it. At the time, she contacted agencies by finding numbers in the Yellow Pages and got an appointment two days later. Chance led her to work for brands. “My dream was to have an illustration in a Larousse dictionary”.she recalls of a youthful wish. A wish never fulfilled, but one that has never prevented her from enjoying her 42 years in Paris.

Chanel, L’Oréal…

From Moscow to Dubai, where she was called in to help set up Lipton iced tea, via France and the carrot to fit into a small space in a purée from La Tablée du Potager, her roadmap is full. In front of her digital “press-book”, which stands in stark contrast to the paper notebook and pen she continues to take out for professional meetings, she thinks back on certain anecdotes. Stopping at a La Tisanière logo showing a young woman with flowers in her hands, she explains: “Here, for example, we’re going to rework the visual for six months to add a flower. It was difficult to get the arms into the frame, because the position wasn’t natural.” As the artist sums up in front of a leaflet drawn for a L’Oréal product: “It doesn’t show, but it’s crazy work!”. For this one, she had to watch a hairdresser to make sure she didn’t make a mistake. Sometimes, dozens of people come to give their opinion. Mustela, Évian, Lactel, Chocolats de Neuville, even Chanel… she’s rubbed shoulders with many different worlds.

“Look at these syrups, I could have designed them!laughs Béatrice Urseau, standing in front of the bar where Le Figaro spoke to her. No illustration escapes her, just as these beers enjoy elegant, original visuals. She also had the opportunity to “designer strong spirits. Some of his visuals have never been published, or only confidentially. In fact, he sometimes drew products before they were launched, to help teams imagine them.

“End of the road

Now in “end of course as she herself puts it, the artist who practises realistic line drawing can increasingly give way to creativity and express her artistic soul. She paints houses or illustrates scenes of life that she sells. She has also been involved in designing posters for local houses in Saint-Nazaire. Occasionally, she returns to Paris once a month. She is now also involved with a local collective of illustrators called Splash! She presented her work at an association forum in September, when it was spotted by Presse Océan at that time.

At the end of a busy career that is not yet really over, this Nazairian – who never expected such a destiny – is proud to have “managed to make a living [sa] passion. It’s a privilege to do a job you love”.. Talent, nerve, a network… enabled him to make a very good living, at a time when means were abundant, and to never be bored.