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Michel Olyff
Michel Olyff born in Antwerp in 1927. He is a Belgian Graphic designer, engraver and illustrator. He was a pupil of Joris Minne at the School of Art of the Cambre. Since 1975, he was a Professor of graphic design at Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, later he became in charge of the letter technique course at La Cambre from 1978.

Michel Olyff is a consultant designer to a wide variety of industrial concerns. He is a member of the Board of the Chambre des Graphistes (CBG) and Union Professionelle des Industrial Designers (UID) as well as a member of AGI. 

Also His graphic works range from pure research to applied graphics: brands and emblems, posters, postage stamp - in collaboration with Alechinsky in 1995, signage, art and scientific books, illustration of books, magazines, newspapers ...

Life and His family
Michel Olyff was born in Antwerp in 1927, son of the mining engineer Hubert Olyff and Clear vineyard. Father Olyff was an exalted water colorist, and published it in 1949 the book ‘ULB 20-26’containing caricatures of the whole body professor at the ULB. The drawings had been made hidden during classes between 1920 and 1926.The Olyffs have the spirit of contradiction in their blood.

During the Ardennes offensive in the winter of 1945, Michel leaves the Athenaeum of Uccle and commits himself as volunteer in the Piron Brigade. After the campaign from Holland, he was wounded in Germany by a broken Caterpillar.

Between 1953 and 1963, he lives and works in Niewport-les-Bains, where he's starting his family. In 1970, he moved to Ittre and still lives there with his wife. Their daughter Clotilde Olyff (B. 1962), graphic designer and typographer, follow in his footsteps.

Academy and starting career
Michel Olyff said,“ I Dropped out of high school doubtful; I never thought that having taken refuge in the Cambre. I had to make a living with what I learned there. I came out in June 1950, most distinguished widely from the illustration workshop of the book directed by the Antwerp engraver Joris Minne, and I started to make the scales in a favorable environment. Indeed, in March 1949 the Ateliers du Marais established by Olivier Strebelle (childhood friend) with Alechinsky and Freddy Michiels (decorator strict to the performing arts), I was part of this community, Reinhoud D'haese, (sculptor), André Jacqmain (the architect), Luc De Heusch (the ethnologist filmmaker, who at the time was Luc Zangrie the poet). At 80 street du Marais, and more particularly "the studio of Pierre" Alechinsky, was a way of Zwyn where, boosted by Christian Dotremont, one of the members of Cobra in north-south migration. When I started "doing my ranges" there was no more transfer letters. If you wanted text, you had to draw it or go to the printer; not yet photocopiers, if you wanted a copy, you had to visit the photographer, who worked in black and white. Graphic production techniques have evolved since then”.

Artistic Groups

COBRA (or CoBrA) was a European avant-garde movement active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), Amsterdam (A). 

He joined the activities of the Cobra group .Olyff publishes in three issues of the magazine Cobra woodcuts and lithographs.

Cobra & Co.
From May 8 to August 15, 2004

From the idea of ​​an evocative exhibition of the Cobra group through the collections kept at the Center de la Gravure:

Many  artists represented in individual collections have been close to the Cobra group: Alechinsky, Appel, Bury, Olyff, Reinhoud, Sandberg, Ubac, Vandercam, ... This list has been completed by some generous loans (Jorn, Corneille, Constant ...). The pieces presented in this particular frame, realized in a period generally very much later than the years 1948-1951 would come in echoes of a documentary substratum dedicated to each evoked artist.

AGI
He is a member of AGI.

Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is a club of the world’s leading graphic artists and designers. There are 497 members from 39 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top corporations and institutions as well as for countless examples of globally known packaging, publications, illustration and posters. 

In 1950
In 1950 he made a poster for the Cinema test addressed by Jacques Delcorde. (Linocut on paper)

In 1960

He designed it in 1960; the credit Communal character is the graphic translation of a small sculpture located in the belfry Ghent. It is a communion, a member of the urban militia, which served as a symbol at the communal credit-it was called Jef by the intimate.

In 1962

L'enclos, film d'Arman Gatti (The pen film Arman Gatti) award for directing at the 1961 Moscow Festival and projected for the benefit of the Belgian league for the defense of human rights, on Thursday, May 10, 1962.

In 1969

Michel Olyff Design from Belgium (the Design Center, London, 26.03 - 26.04.1969)

In 1970

Le home, la femme and l'homme (Design Center, Bruxelles, 22.05 - 20.06.1970)

In 1972

A sign of equality and fraternity, this symbol for the International Year of Book of Unesco was printed in the world in 1972.

In 1973

This monogram was born in 1973 in the request by a man named Philippe Roberts Jones for Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

Illustration for book
In 1954

Stay in the fish. For the Dutch editions of Desclée de Brouwer, he illustrated in 1954 the Old Man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway.He said, I used a two-color mixing technique to get a third one.

EXHIBITION
In 1961

It was reworked: for a collective exhibition in the Galeries Saint Hubert in 1961. Nine graphic designers showed original works that were not made. The exhibition system was built according to the plans of Crow Hannoset.

In 2002

QUADRI Gallery Michel Olyff 2002.

In 2008

QUADRI Gallery Michel Olyff 2008,Epic poem illustration by Michel Olyff.

Ittre Espace Bauthier Michel Olyff 29 nov 2008.

Commercial logo
He is also the Designer of the National Lottery logo. Michel Olyff was inspired by the logo that has been used since 1969 and whose O represents a cornucopia.

his most visible traces as a graphic designer are an impressive series of logos from which emerge the little man of the League of Families, that of Credit Communal, the emblem of the RTBF created in 1967, the crown Museums of Fine Arts, the balls of Europalia, the emblem of the National Lottery and in 1972 that of UNESCO.

INTERVIEW
Michel Olyff - Rigueur et exubérance (CLTV)