Les Echos Week-end

The illustrated return of pinball for Les Echos Week-end

For an article on the return of pinball, Les Echos Week-end commissioned Nicolas Ridou. The subject called for an image that could capture the nostalgia of this iconic machine, its visual energy and its renewed place in popular culture.

Ridou creates a colourful pinball world that brings together references to rock, pop culture and graphic surrealism. Rather than simply drawing a game machine, he offers a world to explore. Its details, shapes and repurposed objects extend the experience of pinball itself: movement, surprise and an eye that never settles.

Nicolas Ridou’s storytelling world

The illustration carries the qualities that define Ridou’s work: an uncanny, playful atmosphere in which everyday objects become extraordinary. His drawing does more than explain the article’s subject. It sets up a parallel story, sparks curiosity and invites readers to linger over the image before they begin the text.

The richness of the composition also keeps the theme from becoming purely retro. Pinball becomes the starting point for a contemporary, energetic and immediately recognisable image, in tune with the pace and tone of a weekend supplement.

Where journalism meets illustration

This project shows how VO Talents Agency supports press commissions: it suggests an artist whose visual world fits the editorial brief and helps the collaboration run smoothly. For Les Echos Week-end, Ridou turns pinball’s comeback into a graphic scene that stands on its own: accessible, inventive and full of narrative detail.