‘La page projetée. Livres fictionnels au cinéma’ [The projected page. Fictionnal books in movies] is a pedagogical project led by the Institut Page at ESAL Metz, in collaboration with Léo Coquet, Elamine Maecha, and the institute's students. We analyzed existing films that feature fictional books – books that appear only on screen and were never actually edited or published. These books are often reduced to their physical appearance as cinematic props, typically limited to a cover. Yet they actively contribute to the narrative and, in some cases, even extend it. The research project was presented during The 2024 Biennale Exemplaires in Valence and a one-day symposium in Metz, featuring Agatha Masa, officeabc, Alice Planes, and Pierre Leguillon. This event was promoted via social media and a printed poster. A (filled) popcorn cup was handed out at the entrance of the symposium, with the program printed on it.

Brave New World Order catalogue, exhibition held 2021 at Rotondes, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain. The exhibition was entirely photographed so that the catalogue resembles a guided tour. Shorter, white info sheets come next to the photographs to identify the artworks. Three bookmarks permit multiple entries and reflect the black identity lines. The dust jacket once unfolded presents the exhibition poster. The books uses the custom design of a typefaces in two styles. More information on the project on its dedicated website, also designed (link below).

In the mid-nineteenth century, the French Ministry of the Navy ordered all fishermen to register with local authorities. Drifter boats and sardine luggers were henceforth required to sport a clearly visible number and initial letter on their bows and sails, in order to help the gendarmes identify them. Boat numbers followed a consistent ‘Didot’ style until the mid-1880s before they began to shift. Blackletter initials occasionally popped up on hulls, as did ornamental squares or diamonds. Rounded letters opened up to the point of illegibility, ending in assertive ball terminals and spectacular bifurcations (or ‘barbs’) appeared at the feet of numerals with vertical stems. According to some old seadogs, the alphabet à barbes was invented to make the figures ‘favourable for fishing’ and to bring good fortune. But other witnesses rejected this superstitious idea. Far from being incompatible, these viewpoints provide insights into the varied perspectives of seafarers. Written by Yoann De Roeck and edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.

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.

Bilingual (French, German) supplement to Pangramme: learning type catalogue, published by ESAL Metz, published at the occasion of the traveling exhibition at Biennale de design graphique Chaumont and Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig in 2017 and 2018. Texts by Andrea Tinnes, Thomas Huot-Marchand, Sébastien Morlighem and Jérôme Knebusch. 15x26 cm, 16 pages pamphlet. Free PDF downloads (links below). More information about the exhibtion here.

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.

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.

Three lingual, 16 pages article about the genesis of the Instant typeface. Published in Typografische Monatsblätter / Revue Suisse de l'imprimerie / Swiss Typographic Magazine, N°6, 2012. Written by Jérôme Knebusch. Free PDF download on link below.

Until the advent of talking pictures, cinema had been referred to as silent. To compensate for the absence of sound, films were punctuated by numerous ‘intertitles’ containing a fixed text, interspersed among the sequences of moving images. Intertitles could be hand-painted on thick paper or glass plates, using brushes or round-tipped nibs, by teams of letterers capable of producing up to 100 cards a day. Yet today we know almost nothing about these technically gifted craftsmen. However, at the end of the 1910s, in the United States, the name of a technician occasionally appeared in the film credits: that of Victor Vance, a letterer associated with the Warner Bros. studio. His distinctive style of lettering, constant over the years, was based on a virtuosic use of the brush. Considered a ‘title-artist’, he also wrote in 1930 an article on how to paint intertitles. This account sheds valuable and precise light on the methods used to produce intertitles and the way these objects were viewed at the time. Written by Julien Van Anholt and edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.

Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch have edited between 2020 and 2025 ten essays by Jérôme Knebusch, Sébastien Morlighem, Riccardo Olocco, Dan Reynolds, Éloïsa Pérez, EESAB Type, Yoann De Roeck, François Chastanet, Julien Van Anholt in the Poem Pamphlets collection. The screenprinted box, white on black paper, assembles them.