Je t'aime, moi non plus, Ergastule & My Monkey, Nancy, 2013-2017.
‘What if' is a typical question for an alternate history scenario, also called Uchronia: choose a starting point in history and imagine a different outcome. Based on Futura Fett, released by the Bauer Foundry in Frankfurt in 1928, the type was pushed to extreme blackness without loosing its historical reference nor becoming a caricature. Decisions Paul Renner took to achieve maximum boldness like opening the counters of some letters were taken even further. The typeface, designed by Constantin Pfeiffer & Jérôme Knebusch and released in 2020, was initially created during a workshop at the Gutenberg Museum Mainz at the occasion of the 'Futura. Die Schrift' exhibition in 2017. It has a single weight (among the blackest one can find), five widths and respective oblique versions. The glyphset is extended with Futura's iconic historical alternates, ‘Schmuck-Elemente' (decorative geometric forms) and a complete range of thin punctuation marks and diacritics.
If, typeface, w/ Constantin Pfeiffer, 2007-2020. Published by Poem.
Artifice, Musée de l’Ardenne, Médiathèque Charleville-Mézières, 2013-2015.
Visual identity and design of the Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création website. The young art triennale is a major event for emerging artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region. The website showcases 40 artists and a forum, initiated during the Covid pandemic which delayed the exhibition for one year. Each artist could login and update his profile. The starting page is randomly customized, displaying each time in another order the black and white identity drawings. The identity integrated the custom design of a typefaces in two styles.
Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune création, Rotondes, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain, 2020-2021, w/ Thomas Bouville.
Erhard Ratdolt was one of the most successful and acclaimed printers of the 15th century. He was also a pioneer of new techniques and in 1486 he printed the earliest known type specimen. In this essay Riccardo Olocco analyses the only surviving copy of this single sheet with a discussion on the circumstances of its production and descriptions and identifications of the roman and rotunda types according to existing bibliographical references. The pamphlet is accompanied by a facsimile of the original type specimen. Edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.
Ratdolt's Index characterum, the earliest known type specimen, Riccardo Olocco, Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2020.
Yona Friedman. La création, Centre d'art contemporain – La synagogue de Delme, 2009.
La fin du monde [The end of the world] resembles a thistle or a holly branch. During his residency at the Ergastule studios in Nancy, France, Jérôme Knebusch created twelve in a limited edition. All look similar, but none are identical. They were vector drawn, laser cut in brass, manually folded and oxidized in vinegar steam. Six are exclusively available at Poem, six others at Ergastule. The thistle photograph by Emile Gallé is from the École de Nancy archives.
La fin du monde (2209C47A to L), brass, vinegar oxidized, c. 30 × 5 × 5 cm, 2022. Édition Ergastule, 12 unique + 12 AP
Notizen zu Berlin, residency, text, custom typeface, Berlin, 2010-2011. Available at poem-editions.com
Conference given at ISType Mono series, Istanbul, in 2014. Instant is an anachronic type family going from thin, quick handwritten letters to stable, black typographic shapes. Each of the five styles correspond to a singular design related to a specific stroke speed and weight: Vivid, Quick, Regular, Slow, Heavy. Hommage to the poet, painter and writer Henri Michaux (1899 – 1984), it questions fundamental differences between handwriting and typography, type family consistency and the relation and usage of roman, bold and cursive faces. More informations on Instant here. Video link below.
Instant: from handwriting to type design, conference, ISType Mono, Istanbul, 2014.
Garden Party, Sébastien Gouju, Saarländische Galerie, Berlin, 2011.
Prix d'art / Kunstpreis Robert Schuman, École supérieure d'art, Église des Trinitaires, Centre d'art contemporain Faux Mouvement, Église Saint-Pièrre-aux-Nonnains, Metz, 2009.