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

Futura Super Extra Bold, Gutenberg Museum Mainz, 2017.

‘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.

Title
La page projetée
Date
2024
Type
Research, Visual identity, Editorial design
Client
ESAL Metz
Place
Metz
Material
Poster portfolio, popcorn cup, ads
Publisher
ESAL Metz
Editors
Léo Coquet, Elamine Maecha, Jérôme Knebusch
Texts
Léo Coquet, Emilia Bernard, Corentin Ferry, Alix Hetreux, Yu-Chien Huang, Maddy Lepage, Théo Michaud, Gabin Nivard, Léa Pesant, Valentine Poulet, Erwan Wilhelm
Photography
Léo Coquet
Typeface
Bureau Grotesque
Printing
Édicolor, Bain-de-Bretagne, pok Büroartikel, Berlin, ESAL Metz
Copies
400
ISBN
979-10-90886-22-3

La page projetée. Livres (fictionnels) au cinéma, research symposium, ESAL Metz, 2023. Visual identity, w/ Institut Page

Garden Party, Sébastien Gouju, Saarländische Galerie, Berlin, 2011.

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.

A letter from Sancho Panza to his wife, HEAR Mulhouse, 2015.

Zainer’s Gotico-Antiqua, Hochschule & Stadtbibliothek Aachen, 2017.

Visual identity and design of the Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création held at Rotondes and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain in 2021. The young art triennale is a major event for emerging artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region. Initiated during Luxembourg European Capital of Culture 2007, the Triennale was held for the fifth time in 2021. Under the curation of Kevin Muhlen, director of the Casino Luxembourg, the exhibition was highlightning a 'Brave New World Order' as seen and represented by millennials. Design of posters, booklets, ads, invitations, outdoor shops and more. The identity integrated the custom design of a typefaces in two styles. See here for more information on the design of the catalogue. Here for more information on the signage project. And here for the website.

Title
Triennale Jeune Création
Date
2021
Type
Visual identity
Client
Rotondes, Casino Luxembourg
Place
Luxembourg City
Material
Posters, booklet, invitation, animations, ads
Animations
Philippe Tytgat

Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création, Rotondes, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain, 2021.

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.

Title
Gotico-Antiqua, proto-roman, hybrid. 15th-century types between gothic and roman
Date
2021
Type
Editorial design, Research
Client
Poem, Atelier National de Recherche Typographique
Place
Nancy
Material
Book
Editorial direction
Jérôme Knebusch
Translation
Nigel Briggs, Jean-François Caro
Photography
Nabila Halim
Format
16×23,6 cm
Paper
Fedrigoni Sirio, Arena White Rough
Pages
496
Printing
Imprimerie Moderne, Pont-à-Mousson
Binding
Cloth hardcover, sewn, hot foil embossing, 2 colour screenprint on edges, 2 bookmarks
Publisher
Poem, ANRT/ENSAD, les presses du réel
Award
Fedrigoni Top Award 2022
Award
Most Beautiful German Books Shortlist 2021
ISBN
978-2-37896-226-5

Gotico-Antiqua, proto-roman, hybrid. 15th-century types between gothic and roman, Jérôme Knebusch (ed.), Poem & ANRT/ENSAD, Frankfurt am Main & Nancy, 2021.

Erhard Ratdolt was one of the most successful and acclaimed printers of the 15th century. He was also a pioneer of new techniques and in 1486 he printed the earliest known type specimen. In this essay Riccardo Olocco analyses the only surviving copy of this single sheet with a discussion on the circumstances of its production and descriptions and identifications of the roman and rotunda types according to existing bibliographical references. The pamphlet is accompanied by a facsimile of the original type specimen. Edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.

Title
Ratdolt's Index characterum
Date
2020
Type
Editorial design
Client
Poem
Place
Frankfurt am Main
Material
Pamphlet
Publication
Poem

Ratdolt's Index characterum, the earliest known type specimen, Riccardo Olocco, Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2020.

Là où les détails se cachent, Sébastien Gouju, Institut Français Stuttgart, 2013.

Chercher sa recherche, Ministère de la culture, ENSAD Nancy, 2012. Published by Presses Universitaires Nancy.

Biography, 2003-2018 [folded], Poem, Frankfurt am Main, 2019. Published by Poem Original artworks here

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