Bravas Graphix’s explosive posters and stickers strike a balance between the punk and the academic

There’s semantic lore behind Bravas Graphix, a Brussels-based design duo composed of Paul Peyrolle and Jules Rousselet, who describe themselves as the “two protagonists” behind the mini-studio. Bravas comes from the dialect local to Sommières, a village between the Camargue and the Cévennes, where the duo are from, and it means brave or kind. In Languedocian slang, it also refers to bulls that are wild and untamed. Essentially: they’re simultaneously soft and edgy – and their logo, a cluster of eye-pleasing sticks of dynamite, speaks for itself.

The duo’s teenage love for the ‘bloghouse’ genre as former “fluokids” motivated their common musical and visual preferences, and they began creating everything from fanzines to tote bags as teenagers. “We are constantly striving to strike a balance between work that respects academic rules of composition, established visual codes — and good readability, something more spontaneous, adventurous, playful, even naive,” says Paul. “We are increasingly trying not to be show-offs, to highlight our clients' projects rather than our own eye-catching style. But this isn't always easy, because many clients come to us precisely for ‘the Bravas style’ – full of colors and splashes, something punk and explosive.”

Crafting and bootlegging are the central focus in the work published under Bravas Graphix. Physical tinkering with cutting, pasting, acetone transfers, photocopying and scanning objects add to analogue grain, which the duo uses to combat an “age of Canva templates and automated tools”. On the bootleg side of their craft, their posters feature common bootlegging icons, such as the ‘pissing Calvin’ seen on so many car bumpers. Archival materials of flowers and coins, coffee stains, stickers of Smurfs and Mickey Mouse and sequin patterns fall across every page like an electronic song threw-up on the poster. Everything about Bravas Graphix’s style is loud, from radioactive greens to distinctly digital, kitschy gradients – it’s a reminder that music poster aesthetics have always been about remixing, quoting or borrowing – anti-corporate and outside of academic tastes, proudly so.