Clement Charbonnier in front of the student posters, front on top row, backside on bottom row

Graphic designer Clement Charbonnier and poet Anne Mulpas did a poetry poster project "Auto-graphie" with a group of students age 14 - 15 from a college in Chaumont (FR), that was shown during the Chaumont Poster Festival 2010. The project's focus is on individual and collective identities. Each student wrote a short text about himself and painted a picture, which were then applied on both sides of a large (70 x 100 cm) sheet of paper, in corresponding positions. After printing the six posters of the series, they were cut up into small (14 x 20 cm) pieces, each about one student, and given away during the festival. The texts range from the joyous I am a somptuous mirror, my lips reflect the abundance of the world by Julia, to the haunting 3 a.m. : My dreams carve a bottomless pit out of me, the fire devours my soul, I burn from fear by Lola.

Jorge Betancourt, the legendary Chaumont silkscreen printer Jorge has for many years run silkscreen workshops in the municipal library "Les Silos" for people in difficult life situations, for example the long time unemployed, to give them a sense of accomplishement, and hope. He guides them through the whole process from design to printing, and the results are simply stunning. I personally feel that they are one of the main attractions of the festival, and have always been looking forward to them and hope to be able to also participate one day. This year the students, and another project group led by Sebastien Marchal, had the privilege to work with Jorge.

After the disastrous statement by the jury of the student poster competition that the student posters were so bad that they did not even merit a judgement, I decided to ask a teacher, Clement Charbonnier, if he was satisfied with the quality of the students work, and he replied "Yes I'm very happy with what they did". Just for the record.

Julia Vaillant, chargée des publics et de la formation, Pole graphisme - Les Silos, Chaumont (FR) Julia explained that the City of Chaumont would like to do more to raise awareness of graphic design among it's population, as Chaumont is on the verge of becoming a major graphic design center in France. Starting with the kids in the schools seems like a good idea, and they reportedly enjoyed it.