An illustrator behind the machine
My name is Inès. Eight seasons in a souvenir shop taught me what people are really looking for when they bring a souvenir home. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I decided to make it.
My story
From the age of 16 to 24, I worked summers in a shop selling souvenirs and local produce. Every season I was back at the counter, with holidaymakers looking for that little something to take home, and boxes of magnets, key rings and postcards that looked the same from one town to the next. Season after season, I learnt the trade from the inside: what sells, what gathers dust, and what people secretly hope to find without ever daring to ask.
Over the seasons, one thing became clear: the souvenir business never changes. Few objects you truly want to keep, almost nothing that tells the story of a place with real character, and above all no experience the customer remembers. You leave with an object, never with a moment.
I am a holidaymaker like any other: when I travel, I love bringing back souvenirs that mean something to me, that I still look at years later. That is exactly what I almost never saw cross the counter.
And then there is a childhood memory. Those little capsule machines where you slipped in a coin to watch a surprise figurine drop out. I loved everything about them: the gesture, the wait, the surprise, and the collections we proudly built. One day it hit me: why not for souvenirs?
I have always loved illustration. So rather than wait for someone else to do it, I decided to draw my own designs and put them in an old-fashioned, fully mechanical mini print vending machine. Two euros, one turn of the knob, one surprise mini print drawn by hand: the souvenir becomes a moment again.
How a card is made
Scouting
It all starts with the town itself: I look for what really defines it. A monument, a local speciality, a detail locals recognise at a glance.
Sketching
I then try out these ideas by hand, in pencil: grain, hatching, texture. Several attempts per subject, until the line feels right.
Signing off together
The finished designs are approved with the shop owner: 6 or 9 illustrations of their place, plus one surprise card, sold nowhere else.
Printing and filling the machine
The chosen designs are printed on thick paper, 7 × 10 cm, slipped into rigid card sleeves, shuffled, then loaded into the vending machine. From then on, chance does the rest.
Collect your way across France
My goal: to breathe new life into souvenirs. Old-fashioned mini print vending machines in the places that matter, all over France, and mini prints you collect as you travel. Each one is worth more because there are others elsewhere: the collection gives you a reason to look for the next machine.
Try a free surprise draw online!