‘What if' is a typical question for an alternate history scenario, also called Uchronia: choose a starting point in history and imagine a different outcome. Based on Futura Fett, released by the Bauer Foundry in Frankfurt in 1928, the type was pushed to extreme blackness without loosing its historical reference nor becoming a caricature. Decisions Paul Renner took to achieve maximum boldness like opening the counters of some letters were taken even further. The typeface, designed by Constantin Pfeiffer & Jérôme Knebusch and released in 2020, was initially created during a workshop at the Gutenberg Museum Mainz at the occasion of the 'Futura. Die Schrift' exhibition in 2017. It has a single weight (among the blackest one can find), five widths and respective oblique versions. The glyphset is extended with Futura's iconic historical alternates, ‘Schmuck-Elemente' (decorative geometric forms) and a complete range of thin punctuation marks and diacritics.

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.

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 With rare and unpublished material from the Klingspor Archives.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.

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.

Louis Hoell cut the punches for the only published typeface Otto Eckmann ever designed. The story of the Eckmannschrift’s creation has often been told. In retrospect, it was the release that made Karl Klingspor’s reputation as a typefoundry director of note. Yet instead of looking at the Eckmannschrift from Klingspor or Eckmann’s point of view, Dan Reynolds's essay directs its focus to what Hoell’s design contributions to the project might have been. With rare and unpublished material from the Klingspor archives in Offenbach am Main. Edited by Alice Savoie and Jérôme Knebusch in the Poem Pamphlet series.

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.