Catherine Chaillet, the stylist who created the first TF1 logo in 1975, died at the age of 91. She was also at the origin of several sets and credits for the channel’s cult shows.
In January 2025, the TF1 group will celebrate its fifty years. A few days before this remarkable anniversary, the woman who designed the channel’s first logo, in 1975, passed away. It was the stylist Catherine Chaillet who was at the origin. His family announced his death at the age of 91 in Le Figaro. This is not the only graphic identity she has created. However, it was not in this universe that she started her career.
Catherine Chaillet was a popular stylist at the end of the 1960s
Catherine Chaillet joined the Beaux-Arts in 1953 and began her career working in architecture. To finance her studies, she launched into fashion in 1962 thanks to Alain Lalonde, a textile industrialist. In 1964, he charged her with the transformation of her boutique on Place des Victoires. With this place called Victoire, she founded what is today considered the first Parisian concept store. At the end of the 60s, she established herself as a fashionable stylist like Paco Rabanne or Emmanuelle Khanh. In 1967, she created the Constance bag, named after her daughter, for the fashion house Hermès. In 1971, Catherine Chaillet was entrusted with creating the brand image for ORTF’s third color channel.” We had to create an acronym that corresponded to the brand image of the 3rd channel. We tried to make it a little open and scalable so as not to lock it into a form that we could get tired of very quickly, because it was going to be used a lot. You shouldn’t wear it out too quickly.“, she confided to Jean Amadou about this creation.
TF1 pays tribute to the creator of its first logo
In 1975, she was responsible for creating the first graphic identity of TF1, which then saw the light of day. She imagines her logo, but also some of her credits or even the settings of her programs. She works on the shows Automoto, 30 million friends, or The spectator’s sequence. She also imagines Tifinsan animated series broadcast before the channel’s news, which plays with the three letters of TF1’s graphic identity. The logo created by Catherine Chaillet was used for around ten years, then declined until the 90s. On X, the channel paid tribute to her. “A few days before celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of TF1, we learn with sadness of the death of Catherine Chaillet, creator of the first and iconic front page logo. The group presents its most sincere condolences to her family and loved ones.” Catherine Chaillet also created the ChérieFM radio logo in 1987.
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