What did you want to be when you were young?
From the moment I could hold a pencil, I was drawing and writing stories. I have closets full of notebooks, all filled with travel stories, little sketches, dried flowers from places we visited, coasters from cafés where we stopped for a drink, and other small moments I could paste in. I was ten when I started doing this. It wasn’t some internet “journaling hype.” I simply loved writing and drawing.
It would have been a logical step to turn that into a career. But back then, “what you wanted” was very different from “what you were supposed to do.” While my sisters had big careers mapped out for them, my path was already decided: get married and have children.
By chance, I discovered the graphic design college. That did get my parents’ approval, and in that way, I managed to stay at least somewhat close to my passion.
I did get married and had children, by the way. But I failed at that quite spectacularly, which eventually brought me full circle, back to where it all started: writing and illustrating. It may have taken me a bit longer to get here, taking the long way around, but I still love it just as much.
Especially now that I also have the technical knowledge to turn those stories from my notebooks into real, physical books.
And yet…
Those notebooks, filled with all those little collected bits and pieces, still hold something special of their own.
I’m Mireille, and with more than 25 years of experience, I translate ideas into graphic design that works both conceptually and technically.