We probably all wish to break out of the familiar from time to time. Stéphane didn’t just think about it, he actually did it. He quit his job in marketing and emigrated with his family. Together they exchanged the warm, shimmering light of the Côte d’Azur for the dancing colour veils of the Northern Lights in Iceland. This change was a liberation for Stéphane and at the same time an opportunity to rediscover his own creativity.

Even as a child, he had dreamed of becoming a sign painter. In times of printers and computers, this profession seems a little out of date today, but his love for it has remained. What he loves best is to put on headphones, turn up the sound and get going: then the melodies he hears become dancing letters on the paper. Chords become hatchings, rhythms become shapes. He immerses himself in the flow of his own creativity.

Stéphane’s partner Emilie runs a café in Reykjavík. He contributes there, among other things, his talent for hand lettering. Together they have built up something that fulfils them – high up in the north of Europe, in the midst of the mystical world of trolls, elves and other mythical creatures. Sometimes you only find your roots in a foreign country. Far from home, you discover what you are actually meant for. And what creative adventure is inside you?