Running away
Virassamy
I designed the visual identity of Villégiatures, a culinary and cultural festival in Cargèse by Grand Cuisine and Villa Flaka. My digital illustrations, inspired by kitchen tiles, blended initials with colorful faience patterns to create a poetic identity bridging craftsmanship and contemporary design.
For Villa Flaka, a hotel nestled in the Corsican maquis, I created a series of illustrations applied across their communication materials.
Inspired by the local landscape — lush vegetation, soft colours and organic lines — the work shapes a warm, graphic identity that reflects the spirit of the place.
I created an illustration for a Traktor promotional event in Berlin, commissioned by Native Instruments. My raw and poetic graphic style merged with the forward-thinking identity of this flagship DJ platform.
I collaborated with SKFK on a 25th-anniversary limited-edition T-shirt, hand-painted in Bilbao to make each piece unique. The design, originally created in 2017, revives my earlier collaboration with the brand, dating back to the SS11 collection.
From 2012 to 2015, I illustrated over twenty articles for The Word Magazine, Belgium’s leading independent culture and music publication.
Beyond the records, I extended this visual language for Rue de Plaisance into posters for their events at iconic venues like Rex Club Paris, Watergate Berlin, Chalet Berlin and Badaboum Paris.
My ink drawings for Rue de Plaisance, in black and white, raw yet poetic, turned each sleeve into a unique object, giving the label an artisanal and sensitive aura.
Between 2011 and 2020, I created the visual identity of Rue de Plaisance, a label founded by Varoslav and acclaimed on the deep house and techno scene. Over this period, I designed more than twenty record sleeves for Rue de Plaisance, shaping a distinctive graphic universe alongside artists such as Norm Talley, dOP, Seuil, Skipson, Gari Romalis and Oshana.
and created illustrations for Rue de Plaisance's “Re-issue” series.
“À ma fenêtre” is my first exhibition at La Fenêtre, an associative art center in Montpellier dedicated to the links between art, design, and urban culture. This venue, which promotes a cross-disciplinary approach to visual practices, hosts a selection of my ten years of work. I present music-related illustrations, personal research, and recent explorations in color. La Fenêtre allows me to bring together commissioned pieces and more intimate works in one space. I also reveal The Escape, a series of large ink drawings centered on the theme of escape.
I was invited to present my work with Rue de Plaisance at the bookstore Echo Buecher in Berlin, a space dedicated to music and sound.
I collaborated with Club Milano, an Italian lifestyle and design magazine. My colorful illustrations, combining bold shapes, vivid tones and narrative compositions, gave the opinion columns an expressive and symbolic visual dimension.
I was call for doing some animated illustrations for the Flipboard news.
I was invited by OD gallery to present in a collectiv exhibition my vision of Amsterdam through a three-color screen print, produced in 2020 by Colormakerz.
My ballpoint pen drawings for The Word Magazine, raw yet poetic, gave the magazine a distinctive visual voice in tune with its critical and offbeat tone.
A retrospective of my illustrations for The Word magazine was presented at Motto Library, Berlin, highlighting the dialogue between editorial content and my drawings, and showcasing their impact beyond the pages of the magazine.
From 2008 to 2012, I created a series of ballpoint pen illustrations for 12″ vinyl covers released by Supplement Facts Records, the Tel Aviv–based label founded by Guy Gerber. I illustrated records by artists such as Varoslav, dOP, Fabio Giannelli, Yakine, No Regular Play and Ultrasone. These hand-drawn artworks gave each release a distinctive, raw yet refined identity, echoing the label’s deep house and techno aesthetic.
From 2010 to 2018, I co-founded Zirkumflex in Berlin with Brice Delarue. The gallery quickly became a hybrid space — at once gallery, studio and publishing house — dedicated to graphic design, publishing and experimental artistic practices. This experience deeply shaped my approach as an illustrator and designer, grounding it in a constant dialogue between art, architecture and graphic design.
In 2025, I created the cover for Radio Liberté by Antoine Villoutreix and SuperAntenatropical, released on Sungroove — a French chanson album. My illustration shows a woman by a swimming pool, embodying calm and inner freedom.
In 2019, I created a series of watercolor drawings for the communication of psychologist Dipl. Psych. Julia Gassen in Berlin. These delicate illustrations conveyed warmth and sensitivity, reflecting the welcoming spirit of her practice.
In 2017, I presented The Escape at Tokonoma gallery Gallery in Kassel, part of the Off program of Documenta14. The project told the story of rangers in flight — a run ending in an accident, a fall opening onto an organic world of pure black ink on paper — accompanied by a soundscape from Philipp Merkelbach.
I was invited by the association Bon pour un Tour to create a wall painting for the Mur de Fou project in Castillon-la-Bataille, France. Conceived as an open-air gallery, Mur de Fou brings together artists from different horizons to transform the city’s walls into spaces of expression.
The exhibition at Tokonoma presented 30 ink drawings from The Escape, unfolding the story through images of fragility and transformation. Each drawing extended the fall into a dark organic forest shaped in pure black ink on paper.
Founded in 2010 in Milan, Servomuto is a lighting design brand that reinterprets the classic lampshade through artisanal, haute-couture methods and bold, architectural forms. In collaboration with Francesca De Giorgi, I created a series of Chinese ink drawings adapted onto Servomuto’s lampshades, transforming them into graphic, narrative objects that echoed the brand’s refined and experimental spirit. This collaboration was later presented at Galleria Consadori in Milan, a space dedicated to design and applied arts.
2009, the studio Gusto from Bordeaux propose me to illustrate one page in their guide about the city of Bordeaux.
I created three ink illustrations for Millénaire 3 (M3), the prospective magazine published by Grand Lyon. These drawings offered a raw yet poetic visual counterpoint to the magazine’s forward-looking reflections.
"Loin de tout était un bois" is a 22 pages black and white edition produced by the studio Bon pour un tour.
Silkscreened T-shirt series for Colormakerz
In July 2010, I presented Lebenswurst at Zirkumflex in Berlin, in collaboration with SKFK. The exhibition’s title merges Leben (life) and Wurst (sausage), a playful metaphor for a “slice of life” captured through drawing.
At Zirkumflex, Lebenswurst presented recent and unpublished works with a wall piece. Drawn in ballpoint on inkjet paper, the series mixed everyday bitterness with utopian visions, poetic figures and sharp words, forming a raw yet intimate diary.
For the occasion, I also collaborated with SKFK on a series of limited-edition T-shirts, transferring the drawings into wearable pieces. This extension of the exhibition allowed the graphic universe of Lebenswurst to circulate beyond the gallery walls and into everyday life.
Founded in 2010, Kunstverein Milano is a nonprofit curatorial platform dedicated to experimental contemporary art, hosting exhibitions, screenings, a library and pop-up projects as spaces for dialogue and collaboration. That same year, I created four ballpoint pen drawings titled “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” for their membership cards, turning functional objects into collectible artworks that merged symbolism with the institution’s experimental spirit.
I created an ink drawing for the print edition of Corriere Della Sera, one of Italy’s leading daily newspapers. The illustration offered a poetic visual counterpoint to the article, bringing my graphic language into the context of contemporary journalism.
I am a French illustrator and designer, born in 1980 and based in Berlin. My work combines expressive ink drawing with graphic precision, exploring the space between raw instinct and narrative form. [more info]
Contact: info@virassamy.com.