On Letters and Resourcefulness: A Conversation with Jérémy Raucq

Recently, thanks to his creative use of our Kunsthandel font, we discovered the work of Jérémy Raucq, a designer and sign painter based in Lyon, France. In this interview, we talk with Jérémy about the craft of hand-painted lettering, the role of resourcefulness in his practice, and the enduring appeal of hand-painted signs in urban spaces.

When someone visits your website, one of the first things they notice is that you seem equally at home with graphic design and sign painting. How did you learn these two disciplines? Which came first: graphic design or sign painting?

I was first trained in graphic design, specializing in brand identity, before I was able to offer sign painting to my clients as part of their projects. Always with the idea of covering a project from concept through execution.

Regarding graphic design, did you receive any formal training at an art or design school, or are you largely self-taught?

I completed several years of graphic design training, specializing first in print, then in web design and development. My path has been quite atypical, full of twists and turns between manual trades and technical skills, long before I even committed to studying graphic design. That's probably why I still love learning and exploring new techniques, practices, and materials in my work today.

What was the graphic design environment like where you grew up? Was there a particular visual culture around you that inspired you to become what you describe as a “Graphic Artisan”?

I come from a rural area near the sea, in the south of France. I always learned to make things with limited resources, using raw, unprocessed, handmade materials, and always thinking about repairing before replacing. Those constraints shaped the way I work today, somewhere between resourcefulness and a kind of easygoingness inherited from that setting.

Sign painting is traditionally a craft learned by working alongside an experienced painter who acts as a mentor. Was that the case for you, or did you learn through courses and other forms of training?

Self-taught in this practice. I later deepened my approach through incredible workshops with Morgane Côme (FR) and Mike Meyer (US). I now work under the name C'est par là, mainly in the restaurant and bar sector, creating painted signs, gold leaf gilding, murals, and custom work, and I enjoy revisiting and varying supports and techniques.

Looking at your work, there seems to be a strong demand for your services. Do you feel that shopkeepers and businesses in Lyon appreciate the particular qualities and craftsmanship of genuine hand-painted signs?

I feel that more and more shopkeepers, especially in the food and hospitality sector, want a completely personalized storefront, unique and hand-painted. It's a choice that adds value to their service, products, and concept, thanks to the extra soul that lettering painting brings. For them it's also an ecological choice, a nod to the past that pushes back against the ugly stickers that have taken over too much of our cities' aesthetics.

Finally, besides choosing typefaces you like from foundries such as ours, have you ever been tempted to design your own fonts?

Yes, definitely. I've already designed custom lettering and partial alphabets for specific projects, but always in a limited way, just enough letters to cover what a particular job needed. What I'd really love is to take the time to design a complete, standalone typeface from scratch, it's a project I want to make time for in the next few years.