Art direction, design & organisation of the Pangramme: learning type design call and exhibition together with the Design graphique & Typographie class at ESAL Metz. The exhibition showcases fifty unpublished student type designs. Jury: Andrea Tinnes (Germany), Alejandro Lo Celso (Argentina), Matthieu Cortat (France), Hans-Jürg Hunziker (Switzerland) & Gerard Unger (Netherlands). The exhibtion traveled after ESAL Metz to ESAD Amiens, Le Signe Chaumont, ATypI Montréal and Druckkunst Museum Leipzig. Free PDF download of the catalogue (link below).

One hour conference about four typeface projects: Instant, Almost, Triennale and Nouveau. Given at Fonts & Faces symposium #9 curated by Simon Renaud. Video recording link below.

Nouveau Quellstift is the rounded variant of the Nouveau typeface. In theory, all sans serif types could have rounded versions. Here, it resonates particularly with the origins of Art Nouveau letters, which can be found in writing rather than in typography. The Quellstift, literally ‘source pen’, is a monolinear writing tool made of shaped cork. Rudolf von Larisch promoted its use through his artistic writing courses at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna and his influential 1905 book ‘Unterricht in ornamentaler Schrift’. This modern interpretation designed by Jérôme Knebusch has 36 styles: six weights ranging from thin to bold, and five sub-families arranged from the most quiet to the most expressive forms named after some influential flowers of the Art Nouveau mouvement: Crocus, Dahlia, Gingko, Nenuphar, Rose, Thistle. The Nouveau typeface was initially designed as an all-caps custom typeface for the École de Nancy, the art museum in France, with Philippe Tytgat.

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.

Nouveau is a playful Jugendstil typeface based on a modernist design. Sometimes qualified in German speaking regions as Künstler-Grotesk – ‘Artist Sans Serif'– the typeface gathers different Art Nouveau forms found in architecture, furniture or art and transposes them into one harmonizing design. The typeface is characterized by wide capitals in many variants paired to slightly condensed minuscules with a generous x-height. Five weights range from hair strokes to a robust medium. The six styles (Crocus, Dahlia, Gingko, Nenuphar, Rose, Thistle) are arranged from the most quiet to the most expressive letter­forms. A variable font assembles all styles in one and makes them accessible through a weight and an exclusive flora axis. Nouveau was designed by Jérôme Knebusch and Philippe Tytgat and published in 2022 by Poem. It was initially created as an all-caps custom type for the École de Nancy, the Art Nouveau museum in France.

Rudolf Koch began drawing the Offenbach typeface in 1928, the first size was cut in 1931, and Koch made final corrections on his deathbed in 1934. The type was published from 6 to 60 pt posthumously by Gebr. Klingspor foundry in 1935. Stylistically, Offenbach is a hybrid, pairing wide roman capitals with narrow gothic minuscules, a mixture Koch had experienced in several of his typefaces like Jessen or Wallau. His student Hans Kühne had added to the Klingspor release the ‘German’ gothic capitals as alternative to the roman capitals. Offenbach is a faithful revival of Offenbach Mager, the initial thin weight, based on a one-week workshop in 2022 under the direction of Jérôme Knebusch. The students of the HfG Offenbach studied the archive material in the Klingspor Museum and lead type in the nearby printing workshop in the Bernardbau. The Offenbach typeface is freely usable by anyone, privately or professionally, under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. This licence allows free use of the font, provided that the type and author are mentioned when using it (Offenbach by Rudolf Koch) and that no modification is made to its design.

The Musée d'Orsay is dedicated to artistic expression from the period 1848–1914. With an annual attendance of 3.5 million visitors, it stands as one of the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions. Its complete visual identity overhaul, undertaken by the Paris-based graphic design studio Zoo, offers a contemporary interpretation of the museum’s artistic legacy by establishing a clear, readable, and engaging visual language. As part of this redesign, an exclusive typeface was created in two styles. This typeface is a modern reinterpretation of the typographic developments of La Belle Époque, channeling the vitality of the era to which the Musée d'Orsay is devoted. The roman style presents a distilled interpretation of the 19th-century French Elzévir genre, while the italic revives the Coulée Italique Elzévirienne, originally cast by the Parisian foundry Beaudoire & Fils. The italic also features a set of swash capitals. Both styles were drawn by Rafael Ribas, with advisory, mastering, and production by Jérôme Knebusch. Some images are excerpted from the 2023/2024 program, where the typeface is paired with Antique Legacy.