For the identity of the festival Ici l’Onde, organised by Why Note in Dijon, I decided not to use any vectors or fonts, and use photography instead. The poster for the 2011 edition is the result of a complex setup, in which I sought to capture the reflection of the text on the water.

I was commissioned by Ateliers Saint-Lazare (formerly known as be-pôles) to develop the typographic brand identity of Samaritaine, a much-loved iconic edifice situated in the heart of Paris. Born 151 years ago, La Samaritaine reopened in June 2021 after a 17 years closure.

The logotype captures the spirit of historic Samaritaine signs, honoring the stylistic evolution of the landmarked building. The singular silhouette of the distinctive historic letters, are blended into the logotype and a type family. Samaritaine Sans exists in 2 cuts: the first one features historical forms, inspired by Art Deco and Art nouveau letters, and is used for the wordmark. The second one has a more modern look, for daily use.

Art Deco style

Visual dentity by Ateliers Saint-Lazare, 2021 (art Direction: Reynald Philippe).

Ralph Rugoff, guest curator of 2015 Biennale de Lyon: “The impulse to announce a clean break from the past, to instigate a rupture with tradition, is the modernist gesture par excellence. Is it possible then, that our recurring desire to declare the end of the modern era is, in fact, merely a symptom of the modernity it aspires to bury? […] La vie moderne, the 13th edition of the Biennale de Lyon, sets out to explore this possibility. Its title unavoidably evokes echoes of earlier, and perhaps more optimistic, moments in history, but rather than its potential irony, what drew me to use this title was its ambiguity.” Invited to design the visual identity of the event, my (rejected) project was to propose an oversized identity manual, playing with the principles of modernist graphic design of the 60's. Rather than applying this guidelines to the communication, the manual itself (as an abstract of ideal uses) becomes the communication. It's, of course, typeset in Neue Haas Grotesk.

Posters for the season 2020-2021 of Les 2 Scènes. Unfortunately, most of the shows were cancelled, because of the sanitary situation. Typeset in Album Sans

Garaje takes its inspiration both from the alphabets of the Bauhaus school and the vernacular inscriptions of Spanish garage owners: two worlds that share a desire to reduce typographic forms to simple geometric elements. At the Bauhaus this geometrization is ideological: it represents a rejection of tradition and the affirmation of an objective and rational vocabulary. With garage owners it is a simple matter of logic, certainly due to an ignorance of tradition. It is somewhat naïve to wish to reduce the shapes of the alphabet to elementary forms. Perfect geometrical forms seem less than perfect to our eyes: type Design abounds with optical corrections that compensate for our perception of forms.
Garaje plays specifically with this paradox: its construction is rigorously geometrical, anchored to a scalable modular grid, with no optical correction. A perfectly objective system, but a typographical aberration, simultaneously right and wrong. For the last 20 years, I have extended this family in every direction, to the point of absurdity: extremely narrow or outlandishly wide letterforms, all built from the same modules. Today it is a complete system, available in 44 widths and 5 weights. The complete family counts 445 fonts, hundreds of thousands of glyphs, and zero contrast: Garaje is a typeface which is at the same time brutal and playful, rational and naïve. Garaje Condensed subfamily goes from 0703 (7 on 3 grid) to 3503 (35 on 3), and includes 145 fonts, + one variable font. Its construction allows to compose in many sizes without changing the stem weight. Specimen made with DrawBot by Rémi Forte.
Available at 205TF.
Online specimen

Poster of the 7th edition of the festival Émergences, a week dedicated to young creation in Besançon. Matt Black + Gloss Varnish. Selected in Chaumont design graphique festival.

A series of posters for Blago Bung events, Emily Harvey Foundation (NYC, USA) and Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich, CH). Art, Sound, Poetry and Performance. Posters are printed in split fountain : gradients evolve during the printing process, each poster is unique.

Poster for Thomas Huot-Marchand solo exhibition at the Iran Artists Forum in Tehran, in November 2018.

Le Pigalle is a hotel in the eponymous district of Paris. The agency be-poles (Paris / New York) commissioned me to create its custom typeface, which is inspired by the vernacular signs and inscriptions of this lively and typical district. Photos © Benoît Linero

Posters for the Théâtre musical de Besançon.