Thomas Huot-Marchand designs bespoke typographic solutions for brands and institutions seeking to strengthen their visual identity. His research expertise allows him to advise and support both clients and creative teams on typographic history, technology, and concepts.
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.
Published by 205TF
Cast iron is used on all signage and property objects, in a wide range of techniques: enamel plates, sign painting, silscreen, embroidery, etc.
Luxeuil script is a very rare Merovingian script, from the beginning of the seventh century. It is derived from uncial, half-uncial and roman cursive: before the advent of the Carolingian Minuscule, it is considered as one of the first formal minuscule.
Intrigued by this local unknown writing, born a few kilometers from my home, I studied it with my friend Claude-Laurent François and tried to design a digital version of it. I had to understand the ductus and then to reproduce the gesture and stroke of the pen. Rather than drawing the outlines, I digitized the inner skeleton, and applied afterwards a virtual elliptic pen. This dynamic approach allowed me to create the very large number of ligatures contained in this handwriting: these ligatures are created automatically with initial, medial or final contextual forms.
Unpublished
- 2021
Samaritaine × Ateliers Saint-Lazare
- 2021
Samaritaine × Ateliers Saint-Lazare
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).
- 2010
Théâtre musical de Besançon — abribus
- 2010
Théâtre musical de Besançon — abribus
Posters for the Théâtre musical de Besançon.
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 Mid subfamily goes from 0503 (5 on 3 grid) to 0504 (5 on 4 grid) and 0603 (6 on 3 grid), and includes 15 fonts + 3 variable fonts. Its construction allows to compose in many widths without changing the stem weight.
Published by 205TF
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 Monospace subfamily goes from 05015 (5 on 15 grid) to 3503 (35 on 3), and includes 215 fonts + 5 variable fonts. Its construction allows to compose in many sizes without changing the stem weight, and/or the pitch.
Published by 205TF
Justus Erich Walbaum (1768–1837), a confectioner by trade, carved his own cake molds. Quite gifted, he became a specialist, developing an activity as a punch-cutter and eventually buying Ernst Wilhelm Kirschner’s type foundry. Considered one of the foremost creators of his time, he cut both Gothic and Antiqua typefaces, the latter similar to those of Didot and Bodoni. But Walbaum’s had a different flavor, and for some, they contain the origins of the Grotesques that followed.
In 2010, Thomas Huot-Marchand and SPMillot were asked to develop the typographic identity of the Musée d’Orsay, which had been based on Berthold Walbaum since its very beginnings. They proposed adding distant “cousins” in later typographic styles: a bold grotesque and a thin slab serif, though these typefaces ultimately remained unused.
In 2020, Thomas Huot-Marchand decided to redesign them while developing an extended family. Album is a subtraction of Walbaum: with no serifs for Album Sans and with no contrast for Album Slab. Its silhouette retains some memory of Walbaum’s particular proportions and slightly flattened curves.
Album Sans offers a new interpretation of grotesques with an extended range of weights: the horizontal terminations of the R and the a, the binocular g, the junction of the k, along with the singular design of the numerals, distinguish it from more usual forms. The duplexed italics have a reduced slant. As an informal reinterpretation of Walbaum, Album Sans pairs perfectly with Slab.
Album is published by 205TF.
- 2021
Samaritaine Serif × Ateliers Saint-Lazare
- 2021
Samaritaine Serif × Ateliers Saint-Lazare
Along with Samaritaine logotype, I was commissioned by Ateliers Saint-Lazare to develop a custom typeface for La Samaritaine brand identity. Samaritaine Serif is inspired by Latines and Elzévirs of late XIXth Century French typefoundries. With sharp triangular serifs, monocular g, flourished endings, some alternates and a very French Art Nouveau touch.
Visual dentity by Ateliers Saint-Lazare, 2021 (art Direction: Reynald Philippe).
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 Wide subfamily goes from 0505 (5 on 5 grid) to 05015 (5 on 15 grid) and includes 55 fonts + 1 variable font. Its construction allows to compose in many widths without changing the stem weight.
Published by 205TF
Besançon school of fine arts is based on a modernist building by Josep Luis Sert (1972). With Rainer Oldendorf and students, we defined a signage system composed in Garaje 0503 Monospace Black, used for the logotype I designed at the time. Letters were reproduced in 2 sizes, A4 and A6. Rainer Oldendorf and Gilles Picouet engraved litterally the concrete wall of the main entrance, to inscribe physically this 750-units grid on the building. The paper letters were directly stuck on the wall, to announce the events of the school, forming a continuous palimpsest.
Wordmark for Cuillier, coffee shop in Paris. In collaboration with be-pôles Paris
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