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

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

Artifice, Musée de l’Ardenne, Médiathèque Charleville-Mézières, 2013-2015.

Invitation and program designed for Kunst Archiv Darmstadt. The archive collects works from artists related to the city of Darmstadt. The vertical alignment of the letters reminds book spines, as well as the monumental historical lettering on the building. Typeset in Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse's Hesse Antiqua, who lived with her husband in Darmstadt. Letters revived by Ferdinand P. Ulrich. The smaller texts are composed with Martin Majoor's Comma Sans.

Title
Kunst Archiv Darmstadt
Date
2025
Type
Visual identity
Client
Kunst Archiv Darmstadt
Place
Darmstadt
Material
Invitations, programme
Typefaces
Hesse Antiqua, Comma Sans

Kunst Archiv Darmstadt, invitation and program, 2025.

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.

Title
Instant: from handwriting to type design
Date
2012
Type
Research, Editorial design
Client
Typografische Monatsblätter / Revue Suisse de l'imprimerie / Swiss Typographic Magazine
Place
Bern
Material
Essay
Download
Article

Instant: from handwriting to type design, Typografische Monatsblätter / Revue Suisse de l'imprimerie / Swiss Typographic Magazine, N°6, 2012.

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.

Title
Philly Hands
Date
2024
Type
Editorial design
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Pamphlet
Publisher
Poem

Philly Hands, François Chastanet, Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2024.

Je t'aime, moi non plus, Ergastule & My Monkey, Nancy, 2013-2017.

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.

Title
Nouveau
Date
2018–2022
Type
Type design, Research
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Retail typeface
Photography
David Axelbank
Award
Type Directors Club 2023
Publication
Poem

Nouveau, typeface, 2018-2022, w/ Philippe Tytgat. Published by Poem.

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

The remarkable edition of Das Blumenbuch [The Flower Book] was published several times between 1929 and 1942, from small 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. Rudolf Koch, explains in a letter that he ‘collected [flowers] at random and without any particular aim. I ketched only the ones which grew in and around Offenbach … This collection is intended to give people a taste of summer while it is winter.’ One member of Koch’s ‘Werkstatt’, the young Fritz Kredel, engraved most of the 250 drawings in pear wood. Online lecture given at ANRT Nancy. With rare and unpublished material from the Klingspor Archives. Courtesy Klingspor Museum, Offenbach am Main. Video recording link below.

Title
About the Blumenbuch
Date
2020
Type
Research
Client
Atelier National de Recherche Typographique
Place
Nancy
Material
Conference
Video
ANRT 2020

O. Offenbach [About the Blumenbuch], lecture, ANRT Nancy, 2020.

The conference explores a period in the history of typography that, relatively speaking, is not often studied: after Gutenberg and before the Jenson model was stabilized. The body of work study extends back to the first humanistic tendencies toward 'pure' romans, by way of many cases of uncertain designs, voluntary hybridizations, or archaic forms of roman. Undertaken between 2016 and 2020 at ANRT Nancy and coordinated by Jérôme Knebusch, this conference at ATypI Montréal in 2017 was the first public presentation of an ongoing research project. Its final outcome was an exhibition with symposium in 2019, and a book in 2021. Conference video link below.

Title
Halbgotische, Gotico-Antiqua, Fere-Humanistica: between blackletter and roman
Date
2017
Type
Research
Client
Association Typographique Internationale
Place
Montréal
Material
Conference
Video
ATypI Montréal, 2017

Halbgotische, Gotico-Antiqua, Fere-Humanistica: between blackletter and roman, conference, ATypI Montréal, 2017.

Prix d'art / Kunstpreis Robert Schuman, École supérieure d'art, Église des Trinitaires, Centre d'art contemporain Faux Mouvement, Église Saint-Pièrre-aux-Nonnains, Metz, 2009.

Almost is a typeface between gothic and roman. Based on in-depth research, it was designed by Jérôme Knebusch in 2012-2019 in five weights and two styles, Gothic and Roman, and completed in 2021 with respective italics. Almost Display was added to the collection in 2024, intended to headlines and shorter texts in bigger sizes. It carefully adapts its proportions to save horizontal space, and sharper terminals look more refined, especially in bolder weights. Almost Display otherwise mirrors the various expressive possibilities of Almost, and might be the preferred choice in point sizes above twenty. More information about Almost on Poem's website.

Title
Almost Display
Date
2024
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
Publisher
Poem

Almost Display, typeface, 2024. Published by Poem.

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