Sophie Alouf-Bertot

After graduating from La Cambre, Sophie Alouf-Bertot started working at Elizabeth Arden, where her responsibilities included designing shop windows in the Benelux countries. Despite financial security in the company, after about a year and a half, she decided to leave Elizabeth Arden's and set up her design studio together with her husband, Sami Alouf, who had also studied at La Cambre, where the couple met. After graduating, Sami, who comes from Lebanon, had gone to Beirut to open a studio. In 1970, they got married, and Sophie and Sami opened a workshop together named "S+S Alouf Design". In their collaboration, Sophie has a predilection for bright colors, contrasts and illustrative work, whereas Sami specializes in creating logotypes, typography and anything connected with corporate identity programs. Although they have specific roles in their practice and sometimes one of them exclusively deals with the creation, their preferred approach is to make final decisions for the finished version on the design together. One of their first clients was Woluwe and Westland Shopping Centers, which commissioned them to create a graphic identity as well as posters for thematic exhibitions that were organised every two to three months. This resulted in the design of about 200 posters of a luxurious finish, as they used a screen printing technique to produce them. These posters were produced in small runs, which made this printing method possible. Sophie Alouf-Bertot and Sami Alouf have designed orientation systems for several institutions. Their conviction was that orientation systems must not only be clear and easy to read but also attractive; therefore, one should not limit the color scheme to the conventional black and white. However, color, in their opinion, must be used primarily to emphasize visual information, not exaggerated creativeness for its own sake. They believe that the task of a graphic designer is to take into account individual characteristics of every project and building, rather than use stereotyped signage. In the shopping center in Nivelles, they created orientation system that served simultaneously as a trademark, using the basic elements "N" and an arrow. Two illuminated panels made out of those arrows, placed at the main entrance, made it distinct from the entrance doors for the staff. The same arrow-shaped panels guided customers from the parking area towards the main entrance, above which sat an illuminated shop sign of 26 feet. Inside the building, a number of arrows arranged one above another created an impression of a street crossing. For the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), they took another approach. They selected a different color related to each department, which then guided students and visitors through the campus. The color code was supplemented by about 40 pictographs. They also designed an orientation system for the festival hall of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, built by Victor Horta. There, they adapted the style of the building by using enameled steel plates of the same beige color as the walls of the building, and bright green or bright blue letters and arrows, thereby creating a distinguished, bright, and friendly look. Other clients of S+S Alouf Design include the Design Center in Brussels, the Commission of the European Communities Culture and Communication Directorate and Media Program, as well as international projects for hotels such as the hotel chain Sheraton Management Corporation (Starwood) in Africa, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, for which they designed trademarks and identities. In an interview with Sara De Bondt for the exhibition at the Design Museum Ghent in 2019, Sophie Alouf-Bertot describes her working method. She uses a cutting and pasting technique for designing her posters. Clippings glued on see-through cellophane sheets allow her to experiment with color, shapes, and composition until the desired result is made. After the poster image is done, she would add placeholder text to design the layout, approaching it as a total image, not a separate text and picture. She also uses painting, which gives her even more freedom.

Sophie Alouf-Bertot devoted a large part of her professional life to teaching. From 1979 to 1992, she taught graphic arts in the Graphic Arts Workshop at the Institut St. Luc in Brussels, and became the head of this department from 1992 to 2010. During that time she would give lectures at communication through image and color until 2004, after being invited to be a jury member and filling in for someone several times at ENSAAV (La Cambre) Typography Department in 1988.