Artist Andre Francois (1915 – 2005) was one of the brightest lights among one of my favourite tribes of creative people, the cartoonist/illustrators. The sheep above was seen at a wonderful blog called the animalarium, seen here

Born in what was then Hungary, but which became Romania, he followed his talent to Paris and made a long, successful career illustrating books, creating posters, and providing eye catching images for the covers of magazines like Punch, Holiday, and The New Yorker.

Above image is from his obituary in the New York Times in 2005. Available here

Above is from a lovely book called Roland that he illustrated in 1958, seen here

This is from a very cool crocodile book, Les larmes de crocodile, seen here.

Sometimes, he produced work around a single visual element, like a clockface.

But other times, he just imagined something simple and new.

Once you’ve seen a bit of it, his work is recognizable instantly, and yet he never actually repeats himself. Some of his most memorable work was done for big companies, like Citroen and Kodak.

But he reached his widest audience with his covers for the New Yorker. They were always worth waiting for.

Below is another visual thought about the elevator, completely new.

In 2002 a fire in his studio destroyed nearly all of his work. Though his health wasn’t good, he was determined to leave more tangible examples of his legacy than those reproduced in books, and in his last years set about trying to produce a body of new work.

Adieu M Francois. Thank you for the sunshine of your mind.