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

One week workshop with Bachelor students. Design of a digital alphabet where capitals and minuscules have a distinctive different drawing.

Title
Two types in one
Date
2019
Type
Education
Client
Hochschule Aachen
Place
Aachen
Material
Workshop

Two types in one, Hochschule Aachen, 2019.

Koch Grotesk is the newest revival of Neuland by Rudolf Koch, designed by Edvinas Žukauskas and Jérôme Knebusch and published by Poem for Neuland’s centenary in 2023. It is the most faithful to Gebr. Klingspor’s products and includes one separate font for each of the nine original sizes. The appearance is rough, especially when comparing multiple sizes. One notices that the characters in each size are not enlarged or reduced versions of the same master. Koch wrote, ‘the inventor of the form and the maker of the punches were united in one person. The typeface was created without a previous draft on paper, from the mass of metal and the [punchcutter’s] tool, as a sculptural task.' Koch Grotesk also includes a tenth font with lowercase letters. For the first time, this tenth font gives designers access to Gebr. Klingspor’s never-released Neuland lowercase and their matching uppercase. Koch Grotesk was accurately redrawn based on the archives at Klingspor Museum Offenbach and Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. Only few, necessary glyphs have been added, and the font names correspond to the point sizes and original German terms. 10% of licence purchases are deposited each year as flowers on Koch's grave.

Title
Koch Grotesk
Date
2019–2023
Type
Type design, Research
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Retail typeface
Conference
ENSAD Nancy 2023
Publisher
Poem

Koch Grotesk, typeface, 2019-2023, w/ Edvinas Žukauskas. Published by Poem.

Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel's remarkable Blumenbuch [Book of Flowers] was published between 1929 and 1942, from precious volumes and portfolios to pocket editions, involving numerous collaborators, printers and publishers such as Mainzer Presse in Mainz, Ernst-Ludwig-Presse in Darmstadt and Insel-Verlag, Leipzig. The Insel paperback edition continued to be printed throughout the 20th century. Koch began drawing wild flowers in 1922. He explains that he 'collected [the flowers] at random and without any particular purpose. I only drew those that grew in Offenbach and the surrounding area...'. A member of Koch's Werkstatt, the young Kredel, engraved most of the 250 drawings. The flowers were engraved on wood and coloured entirely by hand. The entire project - the various editions, sketchbooks, printing tests and original woodcuts - constitutes an exceptional archive that was exhibited for the first time in France, at the Modulab gallery in Metz The exhibition curated by Jérôme Knebusch is a joint venture between the Klingspor Museum, Poem, Modulab and the École nationale d'art et de design de Nancy.

Title
Das Blumenbuch
Date
2023
Type
Research
Client
Modulab
Place
Metz
Material
Exhibition
Curator
Jérôme Knebusch
Archive
Klingspor Museum
Conference
ANRT 2020
Photography
Benjamin Roi

Das Blumenbuch, Modulab, Metz, 4.5 – 17.6.2023. Klingspor Museum Archive.

Custom all-caps typeface in medium weight, used throughout the museum's documents and announcements. The nearby, recently restored Villa Majorelle uses the typeface as well for its signage. The typeface gathers different Art Nouveau forms found in architecture, furniture or art and transposes them into one harmonizing design. It is further is characterized by wide capitals in many variants. The six styles (Crocus, Dahlia, Gingko, Nenuphar, Rose, Thistle) are arranged from the most quiet to the most expressive letter­forms. Designed with Philippe Tytgat. Graphic design by Lab.Leblond.Tytgtat, Nancy. The typeface was later extended to minuscules in diverse weights, and published by Poem as a full retail type family in 2022.

Title
Nouveau
Date
2018–2020
Type
Type design
Client
Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy
Place
Nancy
Material
Custom typeface
Award
Type Directors Club 2023
Publication
Poem

Nouveau, custom typeface, Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, w/ Philippe Tytgtat, Nancy, 2018-2020. Graphic design Lab.Leblond.Tytgtat.

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.

Almost is a typeface between gothic and roman. It was designed by Jérôme Knebusch in five weights and many alternates. They can be endlessly combined, taking either a roman or gothic direction, without falling in a strong, broken script nor becoming a ‘pure’ roman design. Above, uncialesque and bizarre (Byzantine) letterforms and a full set of initials complete the fonts. All take their inspiration in the 15th century, specifically in the period of 1459-1482 with Gotico-Antiqua typefaces like the ‘Durandus’ of Fust & Schöffer, the first type to present a humanistic tendency. A few years later Sweynheim & Pannartz use a type in Subiaco which some consider to be the first roman although gothic influences remain clearly visible. Roman type was finally defined in 1469-70 in Venice by the ‘de Spira’ brothers and Nicolas Jenson. But roman did not precipitate the death of gothic forms, mixtures of gothic and roman were tried out and the two co-existed for some time. Almost is a hommage to these types, which represent a unique, transitory moment in history of typography. More information about Almost on Poem's website.

Title
Almost
Date
2012–2019
Type
Type design, Research
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Retail typeface
Conference
Gotico-Antiqua symposium, Nancy 2019
Award
Type Directors Club 2020
Award
Typographica 2019
Publication
Poem

Almost, typeface, 2012-2019. Published by Poem.

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).

Title
Pangramme: learning type design
Date
2016–2018
Type
Education, Visual identity
Client
ESAL, ESAD, Le Signe, ATypi, Museum für Druckkunst
Place
Metz, Amiens, Chaumont, Montréal, Leipzig
Material
Exhibition, call for applications, signage, ads
Assistance
Francis Ramel
Download
Catalogue

Pangramme: learning type design, ESAL Metz, ESAD Amiens, Le Signe Chaumont, ATypI Montréal, Druckkunst Museum Leipzig, 2016-2018.

Yona Friedman. La création, Centre d'art contemporain – La synagogue de Delme, 2009.

À l’occasion > Rencontres nationales de la Fraap, Trinitaires & 49 Nord 6 Est Frac Lorraine Metz, 2008.

From metal type to phototypesetting, from the typewriter to the Minitel, and from engraving to dry-transfer lettering, the typographical work of Ange Degheest (1928-2009) testifies of the numerous technical changes the printing and telecommunication sectors went through during the second half of the twentieth century. Ange Degheest’s story is remarkable and a perfect illustration of the technical odyssey that took place throughout the twentieth century. Yet it is astonishing and disturbing to realise that, in spite of the quality and diversity of her lettering and type design work, her name has been forgotten amongst the list of those who have shaped the history of typography to this day. Reviving Ange Degheest was collectively written in Benjamin Gomez's type design class at EESAB Rennes by Eugénie Bidaut, Oriane Charvieux, Anaïs Déal, Luna Delabre, Camille Depalle, Mandy Elbé, Justine Herbel and May Jolivet. Afterword 'Ange Degheest, a female ghost of France’s type history' by Alice Savoie. Edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.

Title
Ange Degheest
Date
2022
Type
Editorial design
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Pamphlet
Publisher
Poem

Reviving Ange Degheest, type class EESAB Rennes, Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2022.

Espace Typographie, École supérieure d'art, Metz, 2009.

Katjas Kinderkrippe, Baden-Baden, 2016.

next page