Daniel Mousset was born in Montluçon (Allier) on February 24, 1956, to parents working in the tax administration. From a young age, he showed a strong passion for graphic arts. In 1972 and 1973, he founded and presided over the Décor Club at the Lycée Madame de Staël in Montluçon, under the guidance of regional painter Jean Bougret. Following this initiative, he was selected by the Central Office for School Cooperation to participate in a summer exchange program for young cooperators, studying the Polish system with a three-week stay in Warsaw, Krakow, and Zakopane, a year before his baccalaureate.

His first professional works were printed as early as 1971, while he was still in high school. He created the poster for the rock group Bestiole, the cover of the magazine *Le Rotarien*, a brochure for the Thermi-Centre factory, and various projects for Le Menu Parisien printing house, including the cover of *Impact-HEC* magazine and illustrations for the poetry collection *Ferveurs*.

Arriving in Paris in the fall of 1973, shortly after earning his high honors baccalaureate in literature in June 1973, he became a student at the Atelier Met de Penninghen and Jacques d'Andon, ranking first out of 300 students in the preparatory sections at the end of the first trimester. A gifted student, he was the only one in his class to be admitted to both the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and the École Nationale Supérieure des Métiers d'Art six months later. Inspired by Jean-Michel Folon and Milton Glaser, he became one of the youngest graduates, at 21, of the ESAG-Penninghen class of 1977, led by the renowned poster artist Roman Cieslewicz. At this school, he benefited from the encouragement of esteemed professors like the famous typographer Peter Gabor and photographers Claude Michaelidès and Jean-Philippe Charbonnier. He also had the opportunity to collaborate with young talents who quickly made their mark, such as illustrator Hélène Tran, comic book creator Erik Arnoux, art publisher Xavier Barral, and designer Dominique Hisbergue.

In the summer of 1975, he was selected by Rotary International to participate in a cosmopolitan cruise with a group of young people from six European countries, exploring the fjords of Norway.

After an internship at Havas-Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, Daniel Mousset briefly served his military duty at the Luxeuil Air Base (Vosges) in the spring of 1978.

From 1978 to 1982, he held several junior art director positions in major agencies in Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine, including Média PA with Patrick Foret and Sylvie Crudèle, Exact Conseil with André Bischelonne and Tony Grassian, and Pema 2B with Jean-Louis Courtois and Alain Pelillo.

In the spring of 1981, he briefly assisted the famous Europe 1 host Jean-Loup Lafont, who was also the creative director at Yves Alexandre Conseil at the time.

Daniel Mousset then decided to start his own business, going independent in January 1983 under the name DMP (Daniel Mousset Productions). He chose the legal form of a sole proprietorship, which took the name DMP (Daniel Mousset Productions). Initially, he had no capital. It all started, in fact, as a bit of a schoolboy prank, with a banner on the back of his car at the time, a Datsun Violet. 

Success came quickly, with two years of uninterrupted responsibilities at a major creative studio in Courbevoie, Autre Chose, led by Lionel Chatenet, first as a freelance on-site, then with clients from the Neuilly-based agency Futurs (Havas-Eurocom group), working on international budgets for brands like Nissan, Pepsi, Tetra Pak, Air Afrique, Talbot, and Perrier.

Between 1987 and 1990, he collaborated with Lonsdale Design on logos and packaging, further refining his already sharp skills in finalizing designs. He also freelanced for Ogilvy-Zoé-Médical and the Transylvanie creative bureau of Cathy Steinberg, as well as the marketing and sales promotion agency Chamarel in Boulogne-Billancourt, where he became the assistant to graphic designer Frank Sèves, who has since established himself as a talented abstract painter (Espace K gallery).

In 1991, the short-lived pin craze emerged, and Daniel Mousset quickly became a major player, designing over 1,000 original pin designs that year alone for the Dane International Group and other promotional product agencies, serving multinational corporations, SMEs, and private individuals alike.

In the years 1992-1993, he actively participated in a profound transformation of the profession, transitioning from traditional techniques (Letraset, repro benches, Pantone markers, paper mounting) to a new computerized approach (computers, scanners, printers, digital media). He purchased his first Macintosh, a IIci, in July 1994, after completing an intensive five-week graphic design training course at the Centre de Formation des Arts Appliqués, where he graduated top of his class in QuarkXPress and Adobe Illustrator.

In 1993 and 1994, Mr. Tuan, director of the Maryse Éloy art school, invited him to share his passion for advertising creation and professional techniques with young graphic arts students eager to refine their skills in a rapidly evolving field.

Toward the end of the 1990s, he applied his technical expertise to Drizan Printing and the medical agency Mane Santé, while also working directly with several optical advertisers like Optic Duroc, Optique Service, and Millenium Optic.

Throughout the 2000s, he adapted to the evolving landscape of still-nascent computer technology: the rise of email, SMS, and social media; the decline of Minitel, floppy disks, and fax machines; increasingly faster printers with more accurate colors; and hard drive, processor, and RAM capacities multiplying by 10,000 in just 30 years. He was among the first graphic designers to equip himself with a Sagem laser fax in 1990, a LaserWriter printer in 1994, a Canon color laser copier in 1995, an Epson scanner and Zip drive in 1996, an SFR mobile phone and Jaz drive in 1997, Numéris internet access in 1998, a website in 1999, an iPod in 2001, a TNT decoder and DVD burner in 2003, ADSL in 2004, Orange internet TV in 2006, an iPhone in 2009, fiber optics in 2012, an iPad in 2013, external SSD drives in 2019, an Apple Watch in 2021, an Alexa smart speaker in 2022, a Nokia Smart-IPTV in 2023, and a Pico VR headset in 2024. His passionate curiosity for technology, particularly within the Apple ecosystem, also led him to acquire one of the first digital cameras, a QuickTake, in 1998.

Between 2000 and 2004, he secured the budget for Jean de Bonnot editions, the renowned publisher of leather-bound classic books for libraries, overseeing the editorial and visual aspects of TV program advertisements.

In 2004, the professional magazine *Stratégies*, a leading authority in marketing and creative agency circles, dedicated a full-page article to him, earning him the nickname "The Little Agency That Never Sleeps" due to his exceptional availability.

Toward the end of his career, from 1995 to 2020, he became the primary designer for the Imprimerie Commerciale d'Auteuil, creating countless wedding, birth, funeral, baptism, and communion announcements, as well as flyers, brochures, menus, business cards, letterheads, envelopes, invitations, posters, and greeting cards. He also handled photogravure, including film flashing for offset printing machines.

With nearly 50 years of experience since 1972, including about 25 years in CAD, Daniel Mousset has built an undeniable expertise in graphic design tools and workflows, primarily through hands-on experience and daily challenges.

He was a member of the Art Directors Club from 1991 to 2004 and served on several juries tasked with recognizing the most creative work in the profession.

Over the years, he collaborated with a multitude of small businesses, agencies, and advertisers, including G'Spot, Media-Delta, Dicaprom, *Le Journal des Retraités de la FNAIM*, the Association des Commerçants d'Auteuil, Radio-A, The French Touch, Cæsars Diffusion, Node Négoce, SMN France, Amin Kader, Art & Typo, Lame de Fond, Noblesse Oblige, Laurens d'Alys, Addex, Melocat Productions, Michel Oks, Mme Kumba, Jeca, AVH, Media Régie, CM Diffusion, Opium, Import Gadgets, Les Apprentis Orphelins d'Auteuil, Icare Print, Cheval de Troie, Agora Europe, Bien-être & Tranquillité, Deux Choses Lune, Astre Jaune, Faster Courses, *Le Terroir Bordelais*, Import Gadgets, Karine Dahan, WL Conseil, Michel Bloud, Cocktail Passion, Kawa Trading, Amadeus, Arka-Colomb, BLP Conseil, Cadagence, Flower Fashion, Vidéo 5, Taxiscope, Afcom, Mme Boisségur, Pascaline Loizeau, Crazy Light, Douglas Beauty, Emergence, IGR-Anabio, Imprimerie Ernée, LMI Productions, Paradise Homes, Mr. Pradels, SB Systems, *La Tribune du Progrès*, Unigraphic, Sports Régie Conseil, Onyx, Intérim Nation, Escale Intérim, Article Onze, Sources, Photo-Reporter, Brio Publicité, Studio YL, Pyc Publicité, Studio Fast, Studio Diss, Publicité & Marketing SA, Strategy, Jacques-Léon Émile, Visionairsinart, Philippe Briguet-Lamarre, the 3J agency, the Alexandra agency, Matador, BAT Studio, Pyramide, Synergy, Limexco, Kanabou, and Les Éditions Laurent Voulzy.

Daniel Mousset gradually retired from business starting in 2020 and is now a peaceful retiree, splitting his time between Blonville and Paris's 16th arrondissement. He has lived in a two-room attic apartment in Villa Mozart (Auteuil neighborhood) since 1982, with a vacation studio in Normandy, 3 km from Deauville, where he organizes seasonal rentals for a small circle of friends and acquaintances, without any strict financial goals.

Take the time to explore the other pages of my site: