Gemeli
A clean and versatile Sans designed to give a contemporary output to today’s messages.
- 12 styles (Mono Regular, Ultralight, Light, Book, Regular+Italic, Demi, Bold+Italic, Black+Italic, Black Condensed)
Gemeli is precise and strong, and conveys ideas in a clean, sharp way. Gemeli shares the same structures as Cogito, but its vertical stroke endings allow for a firmer voice. Initially Gemeli was a outsider prototype proposition which almost got discarded during the developping process of what would later become Cogito. Frutiger, Gill Sans and Antique Olive typefaces are clear references in this family.
Le Gemeli est un caractère précis et fort, convenant à des messages clairs. Il partage une structure commune avec le Cogito dont il est le faux-jumeau: il reprend une des pistes structurelles écartée en phase de recherche et la développe en un système complet et compatible avec le Cogito (graisses, proportions, hauteur d’x, etc.) en y ajoutant une version Monochasse et des italiques. Frutiger, Gill Sans et Antique Olive sont des références appuyées pour cette famille.
Cogito Atelier Malte Martin
As architecturally geometric as DIN can be, as latinized as drawing can be.
Cogito is a compatible typeface family commissioned by Atelier Malte Martin both for its in-house projects and for its studio work.
The commission is quite unusual since design studios are more used to request an exclusive design for them or for their client. Here, the goal is to serve as a workhorse for all kind of work.
The initial purpose of the commission was to replace DIN, extensively used by the atelier, yet it revealed itself to be a latinized sans living at the border of geometry. Cogito has round but stiff shapes and a large x-height, making it suitable for body and display copy.
Cogito has a fraternal twin: Gemeli.
Le Cogito répond à un brief atypique: créer un caractère d’identité pour une agence, qui sera utilisé aussi bien pour l’identité de cette dernière que pour ses clients. Là où usuellement une agence commandite un caractère exclusif pour elle ou pour un client, le Cogito sert, de projet en projet, à affirmer une direction visuelle sur le long terme.
Initialement destiné à remplacer le DIN, le Cogito en est une version assouplie qui est restée rationnelle dans sa construction.
Le Cogito a un faux-jumeau: Gemeli
Nathan Enfantine
- 2011
- 3 styles (Light, Regular, Bold)
With Enfantine, the written letters are now drawn too. Enfantine was commissionned by Nathan publishing house for their children’s book collections. The curvy, friendly alphabets inspired by French cursive scripts embeds countless ligatures and alternates to properly handle the flaws of such typeset scripts. A modern set of uppercases gives the extra contemporary touch.
Carrefour Origin
- 2011
- 1 style
- OpenType-TTF
Pushing the design to the borders of legibility, Origin answers the problem of fitting information in extremely narrow spaces.
Origin is a reglementary typeface commissioned by the retail distribution group Carrefour. By law, it is compulsory in France to set groceries’ geographical origin in the same point size as the price. Origin adresses this need in allowing the “specials” to be still typeset in a “special” point size. Instead of using an artificially compressed typeface, Origin makes drawn shapes tighter than ever.
Télérama Dogon
- 1 style
- OpenType-CFF
- Design: Benoît Santiard & Jean-Baptiste Levée
Télérama is a leading French cultural magazine initially known for its reviewed TV program. Several special issues are published every year, covering topics in the fields of cinema, television, music, books, arts…
Following an exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, Télérama publishes a special issue about the Dogon people. Benoît Santiard was art director of this issue.
Télérama est un hebdomadaire culturel d’importance. Il publie plusieurs hors-séries chaque année autour d’expositions en cours ou de thèmes tels que le cinéma, la télévision, la musique, les livres, les arts de la scène…
À l’occasion d’une exposition au Musée du Quai Branly à Paris, Télérama a publié un hors-série sur le peuple Dogon. Benoît Santiard a été chargé de la direction artistique de ce numéro.
Photos © Benoît Santiard
Sketchbook photo © jbl
Wallpaper Magazine handmade fonts
- 5 styles: Regular, Oblique, Semibold, Semibold Oblique, Black, Display
- OpenType-TrueType
For the August issue of Wallpaper* Magazine, named The Handmade Issue, I rendered several hand-drawn and traced versions of the text typeface usually used in the magazine (Graphik, designed by Christian Schwartz).
The Wallpaper* “Sketch” family consists in a core group of pseudo-text typefaces and their matching obliques, plus an extra High Definition display typeface with alternate letters. Those alternates help avoid the repetition of identical shapes so as to best achieve the handdrawn mimicking.
Art direction: Meirion Pritchard. Intern: Céline Chip.
Pour le numéro d’août du magazine Wallpaper*, intitulé The Handmade Issue, («Le numéro fait main»),j’ai réalisé plusieurs versions décalquées à la main, puis numérisées, du caractère de texte habituellement utilisé dans le magazine. (Graphik, créé par Christian Schwartz).
La famille Wallpaper* «Sketch» est constituée de plusieurs graisses avec leurs romains penchés correspondants, ainsi qu’un caractère de titrage Haute Définition comportant des variantes de lettres. Ces variantes permettent d‘éviter la répétition de formes identiques afin de s’approcher au mieux d’un effet «fait main».
Direction artistique: Meirion Pritchard. Stagiaire: Céline Chip.
Progress
- 2010
- 1 style
- OpenType-CFF
For the visual identity of the In Progress exhibition, Superscript² design studio designed a monospaced typeface that I developed.
My role in the project: design assistance, character set extension, OpenType programming.
Pour l’identité visuelle de l’exposition In Progress, le studio de design Superscript² a créé un caractère monochasse que j’ai développé. Mon rôle dans le projet: assistance au dessin, extension du jeu de caractères, programmation OpenType.
Expert
- 2009
- 1 style
- OpenType-CFF
I designed Expert for a professional & technical magazine about fruits & vegetable. It is aimed at setting titles and strengthen the magazine’s identity (which uses FF Scala). It is a curious mixed-case typeface!
J’ai créé Expert pour un magazine technique professionnel pour les fruits & légumes. Il est destiné à être utilisé en titrage et à renforcer l’identité du magazine. C’est un drôle de caractère à casses mélangées!
Vuitton Persona
Started in 2007, the Vuitton Persona typeface is personalization alphabet designed by Jean François Porchez his client Louis Vuitton.
From the concept and base letterforms designed by Jean François Porchez, I developped the rest of the weight under his direction, did the kerning (very particular, each letter being made of 2 glyphs), designed internal tools for the OpenType programming and the managements of shadows, hinted in TrueType the font, tested and generated the whole.
Démarré en 2007, le Vuitton Persona est un alphabet de personnalisation créé par Jean François Porchez pour le compte de son client, Louis Vuitton.
D’après le concept et les lettres de base créées par Jean François Porchez, j’ai décliné le reste d’une graisse sous la direction de ce dernier, développé le kerning (très particulier, chaque signe étant composé de deux glyphes), conçu des outils internes pour la programmation des fonctions OpenType et la gestion des ombres, hinté en TrueType la fonte, testé et généré le tout.
Wallpaper* corporate typeface
- Client: Wallpaper*
- Art direction: Meirion Pritchard & Christian Schwartz
- 2008
- 2 styles (Regular, Bold)
- OpenType CFF
Wallpaper* est un magazine traitant d’architecture, d’art, de design et de mode.
Les caractères, créés d’après les têtières Wallpaper* et Navigator existantes, (de Christian Schwartz & Paul Barnes) sont destinés à être utilisés en identité. Les têtières étant un mélange de Meta et d’Amplitude les caractères reflètent également cette hybridation.
Wallpaper is a magazine about architecture, art, design and fashion.
Based upon the Wallpaper* and Navigator mastheads designed by Christian Schwarz and Paul Barnes, the typefaces had to extend the style of those existing designs. (Mastheads being “a blend of Meta and Amplitude,” so be the typefaces.)
Le Monde Courrier PTF
Le Monde Courrier is a six-weight typeface designed by Jean François Porchez en 1996.
For the OpenType version of this typeface, I extended he character set of this family, prepared some Multiple Master workflows, reinterpolated the Demi and _Demi Italic weights, adapted the kerning for OpenType, hinted, tested and generated the whole.
Le Monde Courrier est une création de 1997 en 6 graisses de Jean François Porchez.
Pour le passage à la version OpenType, j’ai complété le jeu de caractères de cette famille, préparé certains flux de travail en Multiple Master, réinterpolé les graisses Demi et Demi Italic, adapté le kerning pour l’OpenType, hinté les fontes, testé et généré le tout.
Python Scripting: microscripts
Following the utterly useless Glyph Color Selector,, my first gift for you in 2008 will be, again, scripts.
These microscripts cover pretty straightforward needs. They just tend to reflect my skills in the field of coding: small.
Make EM box
Will create a glyph in your vfb, named “embox”, which will be a 1000×1000em square. Sometimes useful for cross-fonts and cross-softwares comparisons.
Download MakeEMbox.py.zip
Save all opened font’s metrics info
As it name suggests, will export all AFM and INF for the opened vfbs.
I am still struggling to make this happen for features and classes (would be a lot more useful)
Download SaveAllAsAFM.py.zip
Set all opened font’s Version number and creation year
It will also sync the different values (TT version etc) in the font info.
A two-lines manual: open the script, modify the options between double quotes:
versionMajor = "0" #Set your version number here
versionMinor = "001" #Set your revision number here
year = 2008
Download FontInfoVersionanddate.py.zip
Special glyphs creator
Creates space, .CR, .notdef and .null glyphs.
Font UPM must be 1000. Script also adds Ux0020 Unicode value to /space (so comment-out if unneeded). Script also draws an (ugly) .notdef glyph. Very very ugly.
Download SpecialGlyphsCreator.py.zip
Python scripting: Coloured glyphs selector
Maybe the most useless FontLab Studio script ever, as once said a fellow colleague, still it’s available for your pleasure:
A series of Python scripts for FontLab Studio that enables you to select all coloured glyphs in one click. Requires Robofab to work.
Download glyphcolorselector.zip
The collection works as follows:
- ALL.py lets you select all glyphs that are coloured, whatever their colour is.
- Blue.py selects blue-coloured glyphs (how surprising…)
- Cyan.py selects cyan glyphs
- Green.py selects green glyphs
- Pink.py selects pink glyphs
- Red.py selects red glyphs
The script can be tweaked by modifying this line:
if glyph.mark == 210:
Where 210 is the numerical value of Pink
Based upon my idea (I sometimes have strange ideas), the coding is however the work of fellow Karsten Lücke. Be sure to check his foundry and his delightful typefaces.
Edit: A few more scripts here: the microscripts article
Henderson Serif & Sans
Henderson is an exclusive typeface with Sans and Serif versions, designed by Jean François Porchez for his client and The Creative Factory design agency.
I took part in extending some weights from base letterforms designed by Jean François Porchez. I also prepared some Multiple Master workflows and developped the kerning, programmed the OpenType features, hinted in TrueType part of the family. My collaboration ended before the project end.
L’Henderson est une famille de caractères exclusive en version avec et sans empattements créée par Jean François Porchez en 2006 pour le compte de son client et de l’agence The Creative Factory.
J’ai participé à l’extension de certaines graisses d’après les formes de bases créés par Jean François Porchez. J’ai également préparé certains flux de travail en Multiple Master, développé le kerning, programmé les fonctions OpenType, hinté en TrueType une partie de la famille. Ma collaboration s’est arrêtée avant la finalisation du projet.
Retiro
Retiro is a typeface designed by Jean François Porchez started in 2006 for his client, Madriz magazine. It is based on his typeface Ambroise he designed in 2001.
I took part in the early research under his direction. Some of them were later integrated in the shipped font for some glyphs alternates. My collaboration ended before the end of the project.
Le Retiro est une création de Jean François Porchez démarrée en 2006 pour le compte de son client, le magazine Madriz. Cette création est basée sur son caractère Ambroise, créé par ses soins en 2001.
J’ai participé aux premières recherches sous la direction de Jean François Porchez. Par la suite, certaines de mes recherches ont été intégrées dans la fonte de test pour certaines variantes de glyphes. Ma collaboration s’est arrêtée avant la finalisation du projet.
