Marine de Quénetain grew up in Paris with a Finnish mother and a French father. Her parents, a stylist and company director respectively, instilled in her the strength and the idea that one can be free and passionate about one's work. Awakened to creativity, color and design, Marine dreamed of a career in the arts and enrolled at ESAG Penninghen (a French school of interior architecture, communication and art direction) in the art direction and graphic design section, finishing her course with a thesis on heraldry (the science of coats of arms).
After graduating in 2009, entrepreneurship caught her eye and she co-founded a graphic design and layout studio (M2D2, echoing their initials) with a former classmate, Manon Dugravier. Prestigious customers put their trust in the two designers (Les éditions La Martinière, Hachette, Van Cleef, Hermès, LVMH etc.) and reinforced Marine's belief that drawing would be her destiny.
In 2014, convinced that she needed to make herself known to as many people as possible if she was to make a living from her passion, she decided to send a newsletter showcasing her work to all her LinkedIn contacts. An editor from a major press group (Mondadori) immediately contacted her and offered her a regular collaboration in one of its flagship titles, Grazia. For a year, she illustrated an editorialist's mood pieces.
It was also during this period that she decided to share one of her illustrations every week on Instagram. In particular, she published what was to become her flagship drawing: a "dream shelf" featuring some twenty beauty products she dreamed of owning, including Glossier. She turned her design into an iPhone case, and one day found herself tagged by Emily Weiss (American founder of Glossier) on Instagram. All hell broke loose. Contracts for beauty brands in England and the United States followed. Then it was Gwyneth Paltrow and Kourtney Kardashian who reposted her shelves, giving her even more international exposure.
From 2015 to 2019, Marine de Quénetain will illustrate women in their everyday lives for prestigious fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands, always in line with a mood, a desire, a reflection or a current event.
A collaboration with a committed, eco-responsible company in 2019 acts as a catalyst in her career. Aware of what's at stake in the world around her and the impact a drawing can have on people, she decided to reconcile her work and her commitments by only working with brands whose DNA or discourse resonates with her values: inclusivity, ecological responsibility, feminism and conscience. She lives in Paris with her husband and two children.
Text: Ophélie Meunier from marinedequenetain.com
