Ligne-claire Illustrations By French Artist Simon Bailly, Blending Franco-Belgian Comics With Sharp Editorial Storytelling

Simon Bailly is a French illustrator and graphic designer from Lyon (born 1993) whose work fuses ligne claire Franco‑Belgian comics with poster design and dry, often sarcastic visual storytelling.

Since graduating from École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine in 2015, he has illustrated for Libération and Le 1 and now works widely with clients such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Hermès and Kiblind, while also creating risograph posters and album covers.

His illustrations use clear, precise linework, flat or gently textured color, and retro‑futurist or everyday settings—bustling city streets, barbecues, tennis courts, strange suns, smoky interiors—often as single‑image metaphors for articles or moods. Influences range from Hergé, Sempé, Saul Bass and Joost Swarte to Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine, resulting in narrative images that feel like witty comics panels frozen mid‑scene. He typically sketches and inks traditionally (pen/brush), then colors in Photoshop or Procreate for commissions, while personal pieces sometimes stay purely ink on paper.

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