Isabelle Follath was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She was a National Volunteer in Laos under the United Nations and worked with the Laotian Children’s Project before becoming a professional cartoonist in the early 80’s. Isabelle began her career as a commercial artist with commercial, illustrative firm specializing in creating children’s books for TLC. She moved on to become an artist and cartoonist, traveling around the world to work with established cartoonist such as Stan Lee and Walt Disney. After several years working in the publishing industry, Isabelle decided it was time to take a step back and try something different; she wanted to do something different that would help define her as an artist. She began a new path by teaching drawing classes to children in her community, which led her to Paris where she honed her skills and met her most important artist yet; esteemed French painter Frangipane Roux.
Isabelle Follath’s first work as a commercial illustrator was for a series of children’s books released by Zsolt Kocsis, titled ‘Nursery Rhymes’. Following the success of this project, Follath was asked to illustrate a children’s book for a publishing company in New York, which led her to meet her artist and friend, Frangipane Roux. The two quickly became friends, and soon after that they decided to create their first comic together. Though the success of their first comic was not big, they were able to capture the attention of the entire publishing industry which catapulted them to fame.
When asked about her greatest achievement, Isabelle Follath considers her “years of work as a commercial illustrator”, which she accomplished while living and working in Paris with her lover, Frangipane Roux. She attributes her success to “no particular secret but only my own intuition”, adding that, “art is my business”. Her Parisian home forms the background for much of her artwork, while her sketches are often based in mind on hotel suites or apartment buildings. The “Parisian subject” is a common theme throughout all her work, even if she never really calls it that.