Jean-Dominique Lavoix-Carli

Art Director ✸ Illustrator ✸ Author ✸ World Designer

I Create Images.
I Create Stories.
I Create Worlds.

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About me…

You may also access my Contact Form Page ►

Who I am…

I am Art Director Senior, graduated from Penninghen, Paris.

Specialized in Illustration and Concept Art especially in Heroic-Fantasy and Science-Fiction, I am also an Author, Scenarist, Typographer, Game Designer, World Designer and Creative Consultant.

This plurality of skills has allowed me to work for Companies and Organizations as varied as Arxel Tribe, Casus Belli, Editions Mnémos, Ernst & Young, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces or the French Air Force. And, this, at conceptual, editorial, illustrative or graphic levels.

I am as comfortable with imaginary themes as with corporate productions on real-world issues.

I am currently the part-time Head of Design of The Red Team Analysis Society, a company specialized in the anticipation of geopolitical, climatic and strategic risks on a global scale.

If you want to know more about my personal background and my professional approach, please consult my extended Biography at the end of the page, or contact me directly through my Contact Form below.

What I am made of…

Gamer

Boardgames • Card Games (Poker, CCG…) • Classic Games (Chess, Go, Xou Dou Qi, Mah Jong…) • Wargames

Roleplayer

Fan Fiction • Figurine Painting • Game Mastering • Guilds Management • LARP • Murder Party • Storytelling • Tabletop • Tournaments

Videogamer

Arcade • FS • MMORPG • Map Editors • Mobile • Otome • PvP • RTS

Geopolitics & Warfare

Diplomacy • Geopolitics • Strategic Foresight & Warning • Operational • Strategy • Skirmish/Subtactic • Tactics • War Engineering

Esoterism & Myths

Alchemy • Divination (Astrology, I-Ching, Tarot, Runes…) • Eschatology • Mythology (Asian, Greek, Norse, Asian, Native, Mesoamerican…) • Religions

Science

Anthropology • Archeology • Artificial Intelligence • Astronomy • Biology • Epistemology • Ethnology • Ethology • Paleontology • Philosophy • Psychology • Quantum Mechanics

Asian Culture

Calligraphy • Painting • Martial Arts (Ninjutsu, Wushu, Kalarippayatt, Kendo, Jeet Kun Do…) • Ninja • Samurai • Yakuza

Medieval Culture

Armors • Heraldry • History • Legends • Poliorcetics • Weapons

Riddles & Puzzles

Cryptography • Escape Games • Riddle Conception & Solving (Situation or Text)

Ancient Languages

Futhark • Hieroglyphs • Nahuatl • Sumerian

Modern Languages

Fluent (French & English) • Moderate (Italian) • Notions (Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Signs language, Tunisian)

Sports

Archery • Bowling • Horseriding • Skiing • Snooker • Swimming • Volleyball • Walking

Why I do what I do…

Infinity of Possibles… 01
The Infinity of Possibles…

My end-of-studies Illustration thesis in 1993 dealt with the end of the current ecosystem due to global warming. The End of the World in 19 paintings called “Animal Wars”.

In this thesis, I synthesized the fundamental components that are the catalysts of my creative life: the objectivizing Science, the meanings of the Subtle, the vision of the Future, the Respect for the Past and the Infinity of Stories that bring these components altogether into resonance.

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Wargames and the Frames of War 02
Wargames and the Frames of War


After graduation from the Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques Penninghen in Paris, I started first with Illustration and Game Design in the fields of Heroic-Fantasy and Science-Fiction, whether in Publishing, Role Playing or Videogames.

Designing games and imaginary worlds has always attracted me, and I have collaborated with companies as varied in their styles or media as Casus Belli Magazine, Jeux Descartes, Mnémos Editions, Multisim or Arxel tribe.

At the same time, I developed my career as an Art Director in the world of geopolitics, ecology and the Army, for example through the illustration of articles, Branding and Webdesign for organizations that dealt with the direst factual realities.

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Wargames and the Frames of War 03
Wargames and the Frames of War


These two approaches may seem paradoxical, but, in fact, they are not. Indeed, most great soldiers and legendary statesmen have approached their Art through Game and Imagination.

For instance, the King of France Louis XIV taught his son Strategy through a Card Game, the Emperor of Russia Nicolas the 1st was passionate about Wargames and the mythical Palamedes is rumored to have invented Chess and Dice Games during the siege of Troy…

This mindset led me to work for a while for the UNTAC and, thus, the United Nations in Cambodia, particularly on the issue of mines clearance through Illustration for the local population.

Because the Image evokes the Action.

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Imagination: Image in Action 04
Imagination: Image in Action


What is the common point between victorious tactics in War, effective graphic Communication and an Illustration that takes you far away?…

The answer is Imagination.

Imagination is the ability to harmoniously bring together elements that appear opposed at first glance, but that ultimately turn out to be connected. And they turn out to be connected once we shift our filters of perception towards them to delve into the quintessence of things.

And, then, we realize that there is a transversality between all the Arts and all the modes of Creation: Music generates Images, Images generate Words, Words generate Stories and Stories shape the World.

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Imagination: Image in Action


From the Heraldry of ancient banners to the Logos of modern corporations, from the chess games of Charlemagne to the speeches of Winston Churchill, there is no human activity that is not based on a Story, on a Vision, on a Metaphor, on an Image. On Art.

The Art of War, the Art of Faith, the Art of the Game or the Art of Politics… all these concepts are developed thanks to the ability of humans to project themselves into an imaginary world… that they can concretize… or not.

This is why I became part-time Head of Design of The Red Team Analysis website, which specializes in anticipating geopolitical, climatic and strategic risks – among others – on a worldwide scale. The challenge being able to express a complex issue into a single impactful visual.

Because if the issues are globalized and linked, then their hidden source might be too. And perhaps are they older than one may think…

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The Visual Alchemy 06
The Visual Alchemy


I have been personally interested in the ancient discipline of Alchemy since I am an artist: the symbolism of colors, the emotion generated by a form, the transmission of meaning through an abstract image… all of this is the quintessence of Alchemy: it reveals what is hidden behind.

Behind a color, there is a word; behind a symbol, there is a speech; behind the material, there is the subtle and behind the Science, there is the Meaning.

Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology lead to the knowledge of Self; just as Astronomy, Geopolitics and Ecology lead to the knowledge of Others… even if these “others” are neither animate nor human.

The principle of Alchemy synthesizes these concepts and makes them coherent and complementary when they were thought to be separate and unrelated.

It is Science with Conscience.

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The Visual Alchemy


The Study of Alchemy in terms of state of mind – as life discipline and method of creative work – makes it possible to get rid of prejudices. It allows to create alliances of stories as one would forge alloys of metals.

Alchemy is to let ourselves be infused by the universe of another being to transcribe back our own vision of him or her.

Alchemy is an exchange that transcends the two parts, for everyone to progress and to reconcile a little more with his own self.

It means to no longer be a distorting mirror but a reforming mirror.

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The Visual Alchemy 08
The Visual Alchemy


This is why I also practice World Design, a demiurgic and co-constructive activity where one designs a world according to given parameters; those varying from the infinitely large to the infinitely small.

For instance, I practiced it in Role Playing with Dark Earth, for Ernst & Young and the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the perspective of the Red Team or by creating the world of an Heroic-Fantasy Comics with its ecosystem, its economy, its legends, its culture, its languages and its own Typefaces…

Because I am also a Typographer.

Typography is the ultimate act of fusion between word and image, it allows to display without demonstrating and to suscitate without talking.

Each letter, glyph or symbol carries the infinity of combinations of words and names that can generate all the stories. All the possibilities…

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…and the Possibility of the Infinites 09
…and the Possibility of the Infinites


Being a creator, a crafter of stories – written, visual or conceptual – means to never give up about being surprised.

It is to look at the universe of another by accepting to be challenged by him or her. It is to be affected by his or her world while proposing your own. It is to be seduced without being dominated. It is receiving as well as giving. It is proposing without imposing.

A creator is both the pen and the book, where each chapter influences both the author who writes it and the story that unfolds ad infinitum…

Whether material or abstract, near or far, there is no beginning, there is no end. There are no limits…

There are only stories.

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How I sound like…

Interview with a Compeer #1

– “Desfragmentations” –

On his Podcast “Desfragmentations”, François Lamé interviews me about 3 different themes…

François is a Marketing consultant, expert in storytelling and narrative, cognitive and behavioral strategies.

His Podcast “Desfragmentations” is a Narrative Point of View project.
He is interviewing regularly personalities dealing with Narration as a profession, point of view or philosophy of living.
Each guest proposes 2 Questions over the 3 different episodes, as well as presenting themselves and their activity throughout the episodes.

Learn more about the Expertise of François Lamé on www.strategiesnarratives.com

Episode 1

“La Vision Alchimique comme outil de Création moderne”

(French only)

“The Alchemical Vision as a tool of modern Creation”

François asks me about my background and my activity. I share anecdotes, motivations and processes that led me to become a Visual Storyteller.

I tell him how I came to consider the ancient discipline of Alchemy as a working method applicable to all areas of Life…

Episode 2

“La Mary Sue est-elle le nouveau Mac Guffin de notre époque ?”

(French only)

“Is the Mary Sue the new Mac Guffin of our time?”

How could a parodic concept of Science-Fiction become a way of life, thought and economy as well as the icon of an entire era? With its own laws, codes, excesses and even its own film…

We discuss influencers, narcissism, inconsistency and the loss of common narratives; all fragmented into small self-sufficient bubbles where the Other is no more than the exterior reflection of the interior emptiness of each…

Episode 3

“La Souffrance est-elle un mode de vie viable narrativement ?”

(French only)

“Is Suffering a narratively viable way of life?”

“Getting out of your comfort zone; I either win or I learn; getting fired is the best thing that ever happened to me”… Have you ever heard or said these terms?

If you have, then you are the unconscious disciple of Alan Kardec’s story, who justified Suffering as the only way to progress. Ideology that seeps more and more into the world of work through the New Age and personal development.