Topic:

Type Specimens

Brief description:

Course theme: Research / analysis, design / layout, materials / printing.

Participants will be asked to design and produce a typographic specimen, in the form of a publication. Typefaces can tell stories. Typographic specimens can be books. A type specimen is a special kind of publication, somewhere between a promotional document and a true space for free graphic expression. What is a printed typographic specimen nowadays? What singular forms or shapes can it take? The course will begin with a brief history of the typographic specimen, followed by an analysis based on concrete contemporary examples, both printed and digital. Secondly, each participant will be asked to choose a Latin typeface from a pre-selected set, drawn from several independent foundries of the 21st century. The chosen typeface will form the foundation for further documentation, whether documentary, historical, narrative or poetic, in order to assemble relevant content – texts and / or images – as well as the traditional glyph set. From this raw material, participants will select the tone of their type specimen in order to start designing the layout of their publication. The following approaches will be welcomed: technical, objective and exhaustive, historical and documentary, eccentric and humorous, unusual and singular, sensitive and poetic, etc. Whatever the choice, content and form must be in harmony with the chosen typeface.

Biography:

Mathias Reynoird and Anna Chevance founded Atelier Tout va bien, a graphic design studio based in Dijon, in 2011. Atelier Tout va bien is committed to design all sorts of printed matters, from the smallest to the largest object, with a meticulous attention to materiality and systematically approaching each project as a playground with a specific context where the rules are collectively set, then singularly interpreted. The studio believes in project diversity and avoids the idea of a one-dimensional “writing system” in the field of graphic design. Within the duo, Mathias has a keen for papers and inks and likes to design very large-format posters and very small-format printed matters, with a rather short public lifespan.The studio's work has won several awards such as “Fedrigoni's Top Award”, or the “Festival International de l'affiche de Chaumont” and has entered several French public collections such as the “Centre Pompidou Paris” or the “Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris”. As well as participation in many posters group exhibitions during Biennials and International competitions across the world.