The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is hosting the exhibition "Roger Tallon, design in motion" until January 8, 2017. We went there to discover this exceptional retrospective and share our impressions with you!Roger Tallon (1929-2011) is little known to the general public and yet he disrupted design on many levels as we had mentioned in a previous article. He is unquestionably one of the greatest French industrial designers: his legacy is constantly present in our daily lives, much more than we imagine! Did you know, for example, that he is the designer of theTGV Duplex, the Eurostar or even the logo Shell?
You may not know it, but Roger Tallon has donated his archives to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. Through this collection of previously unpublished documents, the retrospective addresses all the facets of this multi-talented man! The visit begins with various sketches and models from his work at Technès and his own agency Design Programmes SA.
Then, we have the chance to discover the Japy typewriters designed by Tallon between 1958 and 1963 but also the Goupil 3 computer (1982):
The industrial designer also designed cameras for Pathé (1956-1957):[caption id="attachment_6905" align="aligncenter" width="598"]
Europ 8 projector (1958)[/caption]But also chairs for furniture publisher Sentou:[caption id="attachment_6907" align="aligncenter" width="609"]
Left: Wimpy Sentou Chairs (1960) | Right: TS Sentou Chairs (1978), left chairs [/caption]Roger Tallon designed the famous Elf packaging in the early 1970s:
If there is a very famous creation of the Frenchman, it is indeed Teleavia, the portable television P 111 (1963):
The Cryptogram series for Mobilier National (1968) is also featured:
A large part of the exhibition is of course devoted to his work for the SNCF and in particular for the TGV Duplex, Corail and Eurostar.
[caption id="attachment_6912" align="aligncenter" width="649"]
Louis Vuitton case for the presentation of the Eurostar model (circa 1987)[/caption]Below you will surely recognize the Module 400 series (1966) for Galerie Lacloche, with the famous staircase:
As you can see, Roger Tallon had more than one string to his bow! He worked for a multitude of industries, so you won't be surprised to learn that he was the designer of the Talon motorcycles for Derny Motors (1955-1957):
If you're familiar with Roger Tallon, you'll recognize the very famous Zombie Seats for the L'Astroquet bar (1969) below:
We hope that this overview has piqued your curiosity and that it will make you want to visit the Museum of Decorative Arts. Many other objects and other documents are presented throughout this rich exhibition, so don't wait any longer and run to discover "Roger Tallon - Design in Motion", we promise you won't be disappointed!
