AVIVA-BERLIN.de im Oktober 2024 - Beitrag vom 31.03.2008


Five questions to the French artist Claire Fay
Clarissa Lempp

"Das Malbuch für alle, die sich im Büro langweilen" is a sketchpad for bored office workers. Artist Claire Fay tells how it feels to have a bestseller and why it´s good to scribble frustration away

Illustrations by Claire Fay
Picture of Claire Fay: copyright Franck Benausse


AVIVA-Berlin: First of all: congratulations on your bestseller! Did you imagine that your book would be so successful when you made the first sketches?
Claire Fay: Merci! When I started this book, I was so happy that I was almost sure that people would like it. It took me three years to find a publisher, but Editions du Panama enjoyed my project immediately. Now, I´m glad to see that 300,000 copies of this notebook have been sold, and that it has been translated in 10 different languages.

AVIVA-Berlin: When did you discover the scratch pad as a creative area?
Claire Fay: I always liked drawing. When I was a child, I used to love coloring and collage books… and school notebooks as well. I have always considered drawing as a great way out, and, to me, it was a shame that adult-fitted coloring books did not exist.
So I decided to create a coloring notebook for adults, which would be an outlet for their casual issues. And the highest pitch was to make a doodle notebook "for those who get bored at work", since office work is especially suitable for doodling, isn´t it? Thus, this notebook allows its owner to evacuate his stress and boredom, and to transform it into positive energy. As soon as one has got rid of stress and worries by doodling and having fun with colleagues, one gets obviously more efficiency at work.

AVIVA-Berlin: I read that the suicide rate of French department managers is comparatively high? Was it your mission to bring some fun into the dull everyday life of office workers?
Claire Fay: In this notebook, I tried to get onto working and casual issues as well, like "being in the dumps", for instance, or "going round in circles". I believe that looking at one´s problems is easier with a good sense of humour.

AVIVA-Berlin: The style of the illustrations is similar to the graphic art of Eastern European children´s books or animations, and their stories often have a melancholic/funny background. Were you influenced by studying in Prague?
Claire Fay: In fact, I studied at the School of Fine Arts in Prague, and this is where I discovered graphic designers and illustrators from the 1960´s (especially Bohumil Stephan, who stroke me with his strong, poetical and simple humour). I like both, cynism and tenderness, toughness and sweetness... Laughing disarms, we must use it to communicate.

AVIVA-Berlin: Could you please show us the scribble you did while answering these boring interview-questions?
Claire Fay:





AVIVA-Berlin: Thank you for the Interview!


Claire Fay
Das Malbuch für alle, die sich im Büro langweilen
"Cahier de gribouillages pour les adultes qui s´ennuient au bureau"
Blanvalet Verlag, März 2008
60 S/W Abbildungen, Paperback, 64 Seiten, 17,0 x 22,0 cm
ISBN: 978-3-7645-0287-4