Jacques began drawing at a young age and actually sold his first drawings at the age of 15 to a French publication, 'La vie Parisienne,' under the pseudonym Enrigui, a play on his middle names. His artistic flair would always define and steer his life. After finishing high school, he went on to study and graduate from 'L'Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts and l'Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs.

From 1931 to 1935, he published his works in a variety of periodicals: La Vie Parisienne, Le Sourire, Gai Paris, Seduction, etc. as Enrigui, as well as doing some work for cinema advertising, popular at the time, with U.F.A. Gaumont.

Although he continued publishing his drawings during and after WWII, it wasn't until 1955 that he fully embraced his artistic career, albeit under a new name, Charmoz, a modified version of his old name, Charmot. The change was made possibly as a tribute to the Charmoz mountains in his ancestral Savoie. His works found their audience in heralded publications such as Paris match, Elle and Marie-Claire. He also coined the much used moniker for French summer tourists: les Aoutiens, and he published a highly entertaining book about their travels and tribulations.

He had much success with a series of dishtowels created for the Swiss textile manufacturer Kreier, and he creates exquisite silk scarves, Hermes style, for the SCAP, the canton of Niedwald and the luxury resort of Buergenstock. In that same period, he worked with faience dinnerware shops and created plates depicting bear families and antique automobiles.

But it is in print advertising that he leaves his 'biggest' mark, plastering French buses and parisian subway stations with gigantic posters for Perrier, Lustucru, Vichy, and the famous Scandale girdle girl through a keyhole.

His success also led him to illustrating books by french literary genius Pierre Daninos, notably "Vacances a tous prix", "Ma vie avec Sonia" and his best-seller, "Le Jacassin". This led to similar success with translated books by the American comic legend, Art Buchwald, and his own hilarious satire on skiing "Le Ski de A (Alpes) a P (Platre)."