I’ve seen a decent number of airport art exhibitions in my time, but I’ve never seen one as good and as extensive as “The Parisianer 2050,” on display right now at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I landed here this morning on my way to a week of conferences and meetings in Lyon and Berlin, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the fifty or so large graphic prints that make up this exhibition lining the long corridor between my gate and immigration.

“The Parisianer” is of course a riff on the long, grand illustrative tradition of The New Yorker magazine’s covers. There is no Parisianer publication, but as a project it has been running for nearly five years. It’s a kind of ongoing a platform for French illustrators to do wonderful work celebrating the City of Lights. This exhibition is actually a preview of an upcoming book whose theme is imagining the Paris of the future and the artwork is phenomenal. It’s a perfect greeting for visitors and it will be on display for the next few months in Terminal 2E, Hall M.

By the way I’ll be in Lyon the next few days where I’ll be giving a talk about design criticism at IxDA’s annual Interaction 18 conference. Then, on Friday, I’ll be at Awwwards Berlin, where I’ll be giving a talk about how we can level up the design industry. Then, on Monday, I’ll be making an appearance for the IxDA Berlin chapter too. If you’re in Lyon or Berlin, join us!

Below are some samples from “The Parisianer 2050,” prints of which are conveniently for sale at image-republic.com.