Atelier Jérôme Knebusch
Mainzer Landstraße 105
60329 Frankfurt am Main
jk [at] jeromeknebusch.net
+49 69 15 61 60 23

‘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Fett, released by the Bauer Foundry in Frankfurt in 1928, the type was pushed to extreme blackness without loosing its historical reference nor becoming a caricature.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.

Title
If
Date
2017–2020
Type
Type design
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Retail typeface
Publication
Poem
Free licences
For environmental & socially engaged projects!

If, typeface, w/ Constantin Pfeiffer, 2007-2020. Published by Poem.

Garden Party, Sébastien Gouju, Saarländische Galerie, Berlin, 2011.

Schriftgestaltung: zwischen Leserlichkeit und Ausdruck, Hochschule Darmstadt, 2016.

Jardin de Cristal, Abbaye des Prémontrés, Pont-à-Mousson, 2007.

One week workshop and research trip with ANRT students at Biblioteca Santa Scolastica in Subiaco, 2018. Digital revival of the two types used (and probably also created) by Konrad Sweynheim & Arnold Pannartz in Subiaco and Rome. Part of the Gotico-Antiqua research program. Published as free OpenSource fonts at ANRT (link below).

Title
Sweynheim & Pannartz
Date
2018
Type
Education, Research
Client
Atelier National de Recherche Typographique
Place
Subiaco
Material
Workshop
Publication
Free OpenSource fonts

Sweynheim & Pannartz, w/ Thomas Huot-Marchand & Emilie Rigaud (ANRT), Biblioteca Santa Scolastica, Subiaco, 2018.

Un mot, un matériau, École Française de Saarbruck et Dilling, 2008.

Alte Buchbinderei Appartements, Baden-Baden, 2016.

Pedagogical materiality covers all media, tools, objects, toys and devices dedicated to the transmission of knowledge. In short, all the ‘things' which accompany educational activity, regardless of the place in which it occurs. Because this materiality is expressed in terms of properties perceptible through the senses, its uses are particularly popular throughout the pre-school period and in early-learning methods. Éloïsa Pérez's essay discusses examples from the early 19th century until today. It is structured in three parts: constructing (the letter), guiding (the movement through trajectory and tracing) and composing (the word). The pamphlet is accompanied by the edition of an exclusive capital lettering template and two postcards. Edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series. Translated into English by Nigel Briggs.

Title
The material discovery of the alphabet
Date
2021
Type
Editorial design
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Pamphlet
Publication
Poem

The material discovery of the alphabet, Éloïsa Pérez, Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2021. Published by Poem.

Essay devoted to the study of typefaces created during the 15th century which are neither roman nor gothic. The main concern is to offer a description and nomenclature. The research had been undertaken within the framework of the programme at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (France). Written by Jérôme Knebusch. Published in Azimuts 48-49, St. Etienne, 2018.

Title
Drôles de types / Strange Types
Date
2018
Type
Research
Client
Azimuts
Place
St. Etienne
Material
Essay
Publisher
Azimuts / ESAD Saint-Etienne
Online republication
ANRT Articles

Drôles de types / Strange Types, Azimuts 48-49, St. Etienne, 2018.

Accent sur Est, École Supérieure d’Art, Metz, 2008.

À l’Antique, Musée de l’Antiquité Rouen & Frac Normandie, Rouen, 2017.

Of the display typefaces Rudolf Koch designed, Neuland may have received the most use abroad. But how was it made? A 1922 letter Koch sent to Ernst Kellner provides more questions than answers, and designers have speculated for almost half a century about whether Koch really cut its punches without any preparation. Dan Reynolds’s essay reviews these textual sources, comparing them with surviving process material preserved in the Klingspor Museum and elsewhere. Written by Dan Reynolds and edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.

Title
Making Neuland
Date
2023
Type
Editorial design
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Pamphlet
Publisher
Poem

Making Neuland, Dan Reynolds, Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2023.

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