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.

‘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.

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.

Editorial design of the Pangramme: learning type design catalogue, published by ESAL Metz, 2016. The catalogue showcases fifty unpublished student type designs, interviews held by the Design graphique & Typographie class at ESAL Metz with the jury members: Andrea Tinnes (Germany), Alejandro Lo Celso (Argentina), Matthieu Cortat (France), Hans-Jürg Hunziker (Switzerland) & Gerard Unger (Netherlands). The catalogue features also bibliography in images, essential books when learning type design, published between 1905 and 2016. Book entirely printed in single black, and distributed freely at the opening of the exhibition. 15x26 cm, 200 pages, soft-cover with dustjacket, limited to 300 copies. Free PDF download of the catalogue (link below). More information about the exhibition here.

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.

Rudolf Koch's and Fritz Kredel's remarkable Blumenbuch [the flower book] was published several times between 1929 and 1942, from pocket book editions to precious volumes and portfolios, involving many collaborators, printers and publishers like Mainzer Presse, Ernst-Ludwig-Presse in Darmstadt and Insel-Verlag, Leipzig. The essay by Jérôme Knebusch compiles a detailed chronology of the different editions and presents rare and unpublished material from the archives of the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach am Main. About the Blumenbuch is the first of the Poem Pamphlet series edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch.

The book brings together researchers from the fields of typography, palaeography and incunabula studies, with a particular focus on type and letterforms. The relatively understudied period – after Gutenberg and before the consolidation of Jenson’s model – extends from the earliest traces of ‘humanistic’ tendencies to ‘pure’ roman type, including many cases of uncertain or experimental design, voluntary hybridisation and proto- or archaic roman. In 1459 in Mainz, Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer printed the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum by Guillaume Durand, using a typeface (now known as ‘Durandus’) that looked like no other before. From that point, we can follow a wide variety of developments, partly related to the travels of early printers from the Rhine area to Italy and France. By extension, the private press movement initiated by William Morris and Emery Walker at the end of the nineteenth century in England, revived some of those typefaces before they were once more largely forgotten.

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.

Philly Hands is a concise but in-depth survey description of Philadelphian street penmanship, written and photographed by François Chastanet. It explores the Philly writers’ lexicon of ‘hands’, ranging from the original Gangster Prints to the Tall Hands, Wickeds, Stiff Hands, Punchlines, and more. It also provides a rare glimpse into the preparatory work done on paper before performing in the street. Through ductus diagrams, the inner tracing logic of landmark letters is revealed, offering insights into the unique calligraphic tradition of Philadelphia – nicknamed ‘Whip City’ and celebrated as the land of extreme cursivity. With a legacy spanning more than fifty years, the city has much to offer to lettering enthusiasts. Some cities are able to develop their own scriptural ‘texture’, going beyond individual experiments with the image of the name. Edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.