To understand the origin of Wallimag, we have to remember that the director of Wallimage was in glorious times, but already far away (we are talking about the beginning of the 80’s), the editor-in-chief of the magazine Visions, a historical Belgian monthly magazine dedicated to cinema. When this beautiful object disappeared, he became the boss of the Belgian edition of Studio Magazine. Then he turned more to the world of advertising. But for Philippe Reynaert (who else?), the printed press remains a unique and precious medium. And every time the opportunity arises, he devotes himself to it with relish.
Several times mentioned, the elaboration of a Wallimag had never been concretized. But the 10th anniversary of Wallimage was the ideal moment to leave a trace of the amazing evolution of the Walloon audiovisual landscape since the creation of the fund. So Philippe went back into the archives, sorted, evaluated, prioritized; he also wrote, because he remains a brilliant writer.
But a magazine is not just an amalgam of texts. A magazine is a concept, a look, photos, a layout, thought and coherent, attractive. It is also a manufacturing process that must be mastered to perfection in order to be ready on time (deadline January 10th!).
This is where Pascal Le Brun comes in. Official art director of the fund, Pascal is responsible for the look of Wallimage’s communication since day one. And no one ever imagined that his work would lack punch. The punchy ads, it’s him; the graphic design and the technical part of the website too. It must be said that the man was not born from the last rain: recognized painter, he was very early an accomplice of Benoît Poelvoorde. It is him who signed for example, the formidable poster of C’est arrivé près de chez vous or the hallucinated Internet site ofAtomik Circus. It is also him, in another field, who co-signed the famous Mr. Manatane capsules. Definitely.
Passionate about the challenge, Pascal Le Brun accepted the mission entrusted to him. At the risk of spending his Christmas Eve in front of his brand new iMac. The machine was launched. Unstoppable.
Each iconography was carefully chosen, tracked down on the net, in the agencies, each elaborated page was discussed at length, remodeled during very long night sessions on Skype in a two or three person conference (with the friendly participation of yours truly, who is also always ready for a crazy adventure of this kind). Each time, to punctuate these computer conversations, at the stroke of midnight or later, the director would give us his traditional favorite wink: “thank you for all you do for the public service”. And, each one in its corner, we went back to it with a smile on our face until sleep overtook us.
And? All’s well that ends well, of course. Closed at two o’clock in the morning on December 28, the model was sent to the printer on time.
The result is as good as we expected. Synthetic, sexy, complete, it highlights the total metamorphosis of the Walloon audiovisual universe after ten years of intensive and enthusiastic work.
Because without enthusiasm, there is no salvation. This is also one of the lessons of these ten magnificent years.
