Penninghen
Interview
ESAG Penninghen was established in 1968 and has grown into one of France’s leading visual-arts schools. The list of art directors, interior architects and designers who have been through this private school’s classrooms is too long to set down. It is a private school but graduates are guaranteed jobs when they qualify, say its director Alain Roulot and his deputy Gérard Vallin. Basically, this applied-arts school’s distinctive feature is the fact that professionals working in their fields of expertise, not academics, teach students. Aspiring graphic designers, in other words, learn from acknowledged graphic designers, aspiring interior architects from acknowledged interior architects, and aspiring designers from acknowledged designers. The degree they earn after their five-year courses is also acknowledged by the French Ministry of Education and Research. Alain Roulot and Gérard Vallin told us more.
How did ESAG Penninghen come about?
ESAG Penninghen’s roots go back to the now famous Académie Julian. Académie Julian broke new ground in 1868, when it started welcoming women and foreigners into its ranks. Back then, William Bouguereau, the head of one of the ateliers, spoke with artists in English. Professors of fine arts started lecturing there towards the end of that century. Matisse, Dubuffet lectured there later on. Guillaume Met de Penninghen, a painter and ceramic artist, opened a studio in rue Falguière to prepare students to teach drawing. He extended his studio, taking over the ground floor, which Ateliers Julian had vacated, in 1959. He founded ESAG (for École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques), which by then occupied the entire building, in 1968. He asked well-known graphic artists to teach there from the start. Since then, it has been teaching students to design and create. It awards two degrees: one in Art Direction/Graphic Design and one in Interior Architecture/Design.
What is the point of asking working professionals to teach their trade?
It’s essential. When you are in the creation business, it’s all about passing on knowledge and tradition, about continuity, which is something that only working professionals can do. And you teach by setting an example as much as by imparting knowledge.
Alain Roulot, Director
How does that happen today?
ESAG Penninghen has carved out its niche around teaching students to draw – which ties in with what Académie Julian did. Many of the past century’s most remarkable artists – Marcel Duchamp, Louise Bourgeois, Jean Arp, Jean Bazaine, Robert Rauschenberg, Eileen Grey and many more – have been through here. Training eyes and hands is still the cornerstone underlying the free expression of ideas for this school. But the educational approach has changed – and is changing all the time (especially now that digital technology is here).
How do you deal with digital technology?
You can’t not! We teach students to use it as a tool (software) and as part of their trade (developing interfaces and interactive installations). We are running a large-scale experiment with our central theme for this year: cities 2.0.
What makes your school different?
We’ve spoken about its history. We can also talk about its geography. It is on the Left Bank, right in the heart of Paris’ 6th arrondissement, in a vibrant cultural ecosystem. It is a stone’s throw from the Musée d’Orsay, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a 20th-century artistic and intellectual hotspot. Its international breadth is another of its distinctive features. It is part of Cumulus, a network spanning 150 art and design schools around the world. It takes in students of every nationality, and sends its own students to a variety of universities according to their specific areas of expertise (languages, disciplines, etc.). This wide-open approach right from the start helps their talent to bud, and is what makes flourishing companies want to hire them late on. A number of our graduates are working abroad, in Hollywood, at DreamWorks, in animation, in California, at General Motors, designing cars, in Japan, in China, with interior-architecture agencies. We are also working with France Design Education (a group of about ten French design schools) to promote French excellence – the French Touch – which is something that people abroad perceive and respect.
What is your school proud of?
Our biggest source of pride is the success that the professionals we have trained enjoy. The latest reason we all had to celebrate here was the Oscar in the short-film category for Logorama, an animation film made with thousands of logos, by François Alaux and Ludovic Houplain, two graphic-arts graduates.
How do students and their families hear about your school?
ESAG Penninghen has been around for a long time, built an excellent reputation, has a sizeable network (2,500 alumni today), and its faculty counts leading professionals such as Étienne Robial (who is in charge of Canal+ TV channel’ image), Jean-Louis Bloch-Lainé (a photographer), Jean-Louis Berthet (an interior architect), Jean-Pierre Vitrac (a designer) and so on. This year, the vacancies for students starting first year in 2010/2011 filled up in less than 48 hours.
How do your students get in touch with the world of work?
Partner industrial and business firms ask for talent in a variety of disciplines all year long. Over the past few months, the SNCF (French Rail), Hôpitaux de Paris (Paris City Hospital Authority), Barbie and Forum des Halles (a shopping centre) have been working with our students and their tutors. School authorities make sure the contracts are fair (we turn down requests if they provide little or no compensation for students). We also train students to work on project teams through partnerships with other schools training students to work in marketing and engineering.
`
How many students do you take in a year?
240 for the preparatory year (first year), and 100 make it into second year (about 60 in graphic design and 40 in interior architecture). The rest move on to other schools, other fields, other business lines.
You are a private school. That means parents have to come from a certain background, doesn’t it?
Some of our students indeed come from well-off families. But students from less privileged backgrounds can study here on CROUS scholarships (Regional organisations providing student bursaries, university halls of residence and student restaurants) (5% of our students) and grants that we provide for deserving students from families in difficult situations (3 to 4% of our students).
How much does it cost a year?
About €7,000 the first year and €10,000 right at the end of the course, without counting the necessary supplies.
How does the selection process work?
What makes this school different is that it only ‘selects’ students at the end of the first year. When they enrol, looking at their secondary-school report cards or interviewing them to gauge their motivation doesn’t really tell us whether a student will be good or not.
Who are your rivals?
I think what we’ve been talking about so far will give you a clear picture of what puts our teaching and training approach in a class of its own.
