It’s  not very  common to see a Director of a great Brand producing and playing on Youtube !

Early 2016, Yves-Marie Salanson, Creative Director of the brand Sennelier, has launched a completely new art project.

Beyond its various responsibilities of business man: meetings, brainstorming sessions, phone calls, meetings again, trips abroad, Yves-Marie found time to share his love for artistic practices and to make us discover the reasons for his choice in making his products. And furthermore, he’s good at drawings !

Regularly, he’s on YouTube on the Sennelier Colors channel. Like a star, Yves-Marie Salanson himself,  presents new products and also impresses with tutorials about products and materials. Really, check this out on Youtube, that’s really impressive and helpful.

Exclusively for Amylee.fr followers and readers, I had the opportunity to interview Yves-Marie Salanson. I’m thanking him so much for accepting my invitation.

Interview :

1 / Can you speak of you ? Your carrier ?

Yves-Marie Salanson – I have always painted and I organized my first exhibition at the age of 12. But it was as an assistant marketing that I joined Sennelier ago 15 years, with a Designer diploma. I then moved within the marketing, and I enhanced my knowledge about it with Master Marketing studies in 2005.

In 2008, I became the Marketing Director, a position I held until the end of last year.

Since the beginning of the year, while remaining responsible for the brand identity, I focused on the communication with artists and associations. I am now Art and Communication Director.

2 / what are the different steps of your business day ?

YMS – I became an artist too connected! I get up very early and my first instinct is to take a quick look at emails and messages which I reply during the 100-km commute to. I only move with a bicycle and train. So that I have time for you to have my answers.

I also think about my day, about workshops to do and I keep imagining the fine arts products for tomorrow during this commute.

A typical day is often composed of several periods: the meetings which are very often linked to the development of new products, the relationship with artists and associations, the relationship with my small team of community managers to whom I entrusted the task of animating artist communities in their respective languages.

And of course, I try to get me some time to produce and play these workshops  on video and imagine the themes.

3 / Where comes the idea of you animating these videos from ?

YMS – With my experience I found that art brands speak a dialect that users do not understand.

For example,  shop corners or retailers do not know the difference between « fine paint» and « extra fine paint ». However , this difference is paramount to understanding the offer in shops.  The offer is relatively complex or can be perceived as such, and that is why it is necessary to explain it.

The new digital communication channels are great for this. Social networks help provide services to users of our products while listening to them. This simplified interactivity and presents opportunities in terms of relationship with consumers.

Why me ? Because I know very well the Sennelier products, especially as I am at the initiative of the latest ranges, such as honey watercolor or acrylic abstract. I’m quite comfortable talking about it, and besides, I like that!

4 / What were the steps of this project? Has it been implemented quickly?

YMS – Yes, very quickly. Technically it is very simple: a camera and a computer, that’s it!  The challenge is to adapt the speech to create short, understandable, effective “How To” and that makes  you want to see others.

For now, we are still in development and we make a lot of adjustments to optimize these workshops. But it is already a success: in just two months some videos have more than 40,000 views on Facebook.  The start on YouTube is slower because I took care of it only some time ago. I also try to make English versions, and it seems that the French accent adds a certain charm!

5 / How many people are required to carry out these videos? In which domains?

YMS – We are a small company, and often have to be transversal to carry out some projects. For these videos, I do everything alone! I find the theme, design and carry out the tutorial, I’m also the camera driver and I make the film. A Swiss Army knife…

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6 / What will Sennelier do in 2016? Do you have any upcoming news for my readers ?

YMS – 2016 started with a range of boxes of fine watercolor, which I signed the design for, and have the feature to be easy handled with an elastic strap. We also launched threaded ends of the fine acrylic bags “abstract.”

Regarding communication I’ll plan to make some videos, and there will be also a new website which will be accompanied by a collaborative tool for artists and they will certainly enjoy it. But for the moment I cannot say anymore, but of course I will keep you posted as soon as I can talk.

7 / Each artist has his favourites, are you more drawing, pastel or paint?

YMS – I did a lot of watercolor in my youth, and it’s still one of my favourite techniques. More recently, I did paint with acrylic a lot, but I think I’ll go into a new oil period, don’t know why !

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8 / When will we see making of and great laughs during your shoots?

YMS – Perhaps there will he enough material to make one at the end of this year. This is the favourite time for that sort of thing I think! I had not thought of this but I will put aside the missed ones, and I can tell we have a lot !

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