LA TROUVILLETTE
In 2019, Souen moved to a small seaside town in Normandy, near Deauville. Inspired by the sea breeze and the atmosphere of this small fishing village, the Art Director began creating a drawn character: a #WomenSailor with a sometimes light-hearted, sometimes melancholic mood. The archetype of a Parisian at the seaside, dressed in a sailor’s striped shirt: La Trouvillette was born sketched with ink on paper.
More than a hundred drawings came to life, quickly gaining popularity on Instagram. In March 2020, @latrouvillette began a lockdown journal, blending current events with wordplay, an exercise that was soon picked up by all regional media (France 3, Ouest-France, Le Pays d’Auge, Paris Normandie).
With her friend Scott Pennor’s, illustrator and art director working in publishing and for luxury brands, they took to the streets at night to paint the town’s walls, much to the surprise of the residents.
Her drawings are distributed in the city’s bookstores, and more than a dozen articles and reports have been featured in the press. After leaving Normandy for Brittany in June 2021, La Trouvillette was renamed La Paimpolette.
Souen wrote and illustrated each drawing, defining the character’s traits and establishing the graphic elements (black and white only, logo, and typography). Along with Scott Pennors, she learned to create stencils and painted them on the city’s walls. With David Boutherre and Max Lebidois, she wrote and created original songs. She used her knowledge of social media to build an active Instagram community and reached out to journalists to promote her project.
