On obtient la partie imaginaire en tournant le modèle d’un quart de tour is a research-based, transdisciplinary fiction developed by designer and professor Camille Chatelaine during a residency conducted in dialogue with the Laboratoire de Mathématiques de Besançon (LmB). The project explores parallels between artistic practice and mathematical thinking, approaching mathematics as a narrative and speculative tool rather than solely a system of calculation.

The research is materialized as a journal of residency, conceived as both a mediation object and a call for participation addressed to the LmB research community. The publication makes expressive use of Ready and Petit Frère, both distributed by Plain Form, to support the project’s fictional and conceptual framework. Ready is used on its own (tracked and not), as initials, and occasionally for its emoji.

The project is led by the École supérieure d’art de Franche-Comté (ISBA–SSAC) and supported by the DRAC Bourgogne–Franche-Comté.

The Alphabet of Influence is a book project developed by creative directors Young Emperors, exploring the notion of influence as a fluid and collective language shaped through social media. Conceived as both a photographic and editorial project, the book brings together twenty-six creators from around the world, each associated with a letter of the alphabet, forming a shared narrative rooted in online communities and creative exchange.

Originally developed on Instagram, the project translates a digital ecosystem into a physical object, questioning how influence is produced, perceived, and embodied today. The book was produced with the support of Instagram’s Drafts program and involved an international production process spanning photography, editing, writing, and printing.

Editorial direction was led by Blake Abbie. The publication was designed by Studio Marie Lautsch, with custom letterings by Lucas Descroix. Texts are set in Plain Form’s yet unreleased Ferro.

The book features French folds, introducing a layered reading experience, all texts remaining deliberately hidden until pages are cut open.

This second issue of Mushroom People magazine, published by Broccoli, features “astromycologists, academics, architects, pharmacists, foragers, fashion designers, home cooks, shopkeepers, composers, and poets all inspired by the many radical ways of being fungi embody.”

Exploring the topics of “creation, destruction, attraction, and revulsion”, each chapter is printed on a different paper and uses a different set of typefaces.

The nameplate is set in all-caps Bradley DJR, and most body copy is set in ABC Marist and Calibre.

“Habitats for humanity” is set in Charlottenburg.

“Destuct” is set in Respira Black, “Two” uses Michaux and the small type is Calibre.

“Spores” uses ABC Asfalt.

“What” and “Lurks” are both set in typefaces from Dinamo: ABC Laica and ABC Maxi Round.

The text on this page is set in three columns of pink Certeau, with the headline added in Cancellaresca Script, partly arranged on a curve. The drop cap appears to be custom.

Plain Text is a printed publication for exploratory type design, edited and designed by Lucas Descroix and Benjamin Dumond, and published by type foundry Plain Form. The second issue launched in July 2025.

From Plain Form:

From fiction to theory, from mystical analyses to visual works, Plain Text aims at exploring typographic imaginaries, moving beyond a strictly historical and technical framework, with a taste for the unknown and the dormant potential of writing.

This second issue includes contributions by Hervé Aracil, Tim Brookes (Endangered Alphabets), Aliona Ciobanu, Lucas Descroix, Benjamin Dumond, Mardi Forestier, Inscript festival, Elenor Kopka, Marcus Leis Allion, Pierre Pané-Farré (with HAW Hamburg students), Simon Renaud and Alec Vivier-Reynaud.

The texts of this black-and-white, bilingual publication are all set in the unreleased duo Basically Serif for the English and Basically Sans for the French. Additional information is set in Baskemo, also Serif and Sans, an automatically monospaced-and-skelefont’ed companion to Basically.

A number of display typefaces designed by Lucas Descroix and/or Benjamin Dumond are used throughout, for the title of each contribution as well as various emphasis moments. These include: Michaux, Grandmaster, Disc, Jester (in several styles), Ready Active and Clouded and an early version of the upcoming Ferro. Some unreleased display typefaces, either old or future, are also used but not shown here in the pictures.

The fiction work by Mardi Forestier is set in Exposure by Federico Parra Barrios. Imagined together with the author, the layout is an attempt at using an experimental typeface to underline and augment narration, its variations manifesting the idea of breath.

• English and French
• 80 pages, 210×297mm
• offset print on Munken Print White
• 1000 copies, July 2025
• ISBN 978-2-9597254-1-8

This second issue of Plain Text was kindly supported by Commercial Type, CSTM Fonts, Dinamo, Future Fonts, XYZ Type, and 205TF.

Title is set in Disc Heavy, while subheads use Michaux Light.

Left page shows works from Aliona Ciobanu (image in the center is a collaboration with designer Stefaniia Bodnia). Right page shows the work of Alec Vivier-Reynaud (featuring mushroom-printed ABC Camera).

Title is set in a early version of Ferro Fraktur IV. Images show works from Bettina Comte, Rüdiger Schlömer and Jonathan Mak.

Title set in Jester Fool (squeezed, tracked and slightly blurred).

Title set in Ready Active Regular (condensed and thinned).

Title set in Grandmaster Thin. The right page shows both designs and inspirations from Simon Renaud.

Left page shows designs and inspirations from Simon Renaud. Right page’s title is set in generously stretched Exposure.

A piece of fiction by Mardi Forestier, making use of Federico Parra Barrios’s typeface Exposure to manifest breath.

Title on the right page is set in heavily warped Jester Judgment (in black) and Jester Sun (in white).

Left page features Ohno’s Swear. Right page features Bureau Brut’s Totentanz.

Title set in Michaux Bold, for a conversation with French professor Hervé Aracil.

Left page shows student projects from HAW Hamburg, done under the direction of Pierre Pané-Farré (here the collective typeface Octagon Variable and A Type of Image by Fabian Stenzel). Right page’s title is set in Ready Clouded Bold.

ACT!, the solo recording project of Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka released the LP Face to Face, Day by Day on Halocline Trance in August 2024.

From Halocline Trance:

With improvisation and happy accidents at its core, Psutka put his faith in oblique occurrences, letting them lead, with no idea where he’d end up. Across calm sea rock, treacle-toned rich vox, liquid guitar, jazzy sax, vintage electronics and modern sonics, the pleasing results are unconventionally coherent.

The cover was designed by Olenka Szymonski and features original artworks from May Truong and Andreas Nicolas Fischer of Studio A N F. The title is set in Ready Clouded, echoing the generative stone-like artifacts of the images, paired with a yet unidentified sans-serif typeface [edit: it’s ABC Normal, see comments] in Regular and Bold for all other info.

Detail from back cover

Detail from back cover

Clear vinyl

To celebrate the centenary of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, French art center CNEAI (stylized cneai =) activated Le Musée sans bâtiment (“The Museum without a Building”), a proposal by Hungarian-born French architect, urban planner and designer Yona Friedman.

From CNEAI:

The Musée sans bâtiment is a museum without doors, walls or roofs, open to exhibitions by all, to collections by local residents, to public debates, to social customs, economies and ecologies.
The Museum without a Building consists of some twenty cubes, designed using large steel hoops placed freely on the site. “They serve as a support for artworks made from packaging or other objects: graphic works, collages, photographs or graffiti partly created by the public.” (Yona Friedman) The Museum without a Building is open to all.

For the occasion, designer Odilon Coutarel created a triptych of bright-colored posters, exclusively using Benjamin Dumond’s Michaux in its Regular weight. Symbols and illustrations emulate the typeface’s somewhat chaotic energy.

Plain Text is a printed publication for exploratory type design, edited and designed by Lucas Descroix and Benjamin Dumond, and published by type foundry Plain Form in January 2025.

From fiction to theory, from mystical analyses to visual works, Plain Text aims at exploring typographic imaginaries, moving beyond a strictly historical and technical framework, with a taste for the unknown and the dormant potential of writing. The first issue of Plain Text features voices from various backgrounds and generations, many offering a personal, even intimate or spiritual, approach to letters.

With contributions by Anne-Dauphine Borione, Lucas Descroix, Benjamin Dumond, Kirsten D. Dzwiza, Stefan Ellmer, Ayasha Khan, Zuzana Licko, Arman Mohtadji, William Skeen, Verso Wurm and Eager Zhang.

The texts of this black-and-white, bilingual publication are all set in the unreleased duo Basically Serif for the English and Basically Sans for the French. Additional information is set in Baskemo, also Serif and Sans, an automatically monospaced-and-skelefont’ed companion to Basically.

A number of display typefaces designed by Lucas Descroix and/or Benjamin Dumond are used throughout, for the title of each contribution as well as various emphasis moments. These include: Jester (in several styles), Michaux, Nostra Sett and Stream, Ready Active, Bygone and Clouded. Some unreleased display typefaces, either old or future, are also used but not shown here in the pictures.

The page numbers are set in Jester Hermit.

The publication opens with a number of dense pages showing hints of all upcoming contributions in their order of appearance.

Title set in largely squeezed Jester Hermit. The illustration on the right page shows Bonjour Monde’s Syne.

Title set in several layers of Ready Clouded Light. The article showcases the work of Anne-Dauphine Borione a.k.a. Daytona Mess, including her typefaces Sichem and Baleze Display, visible on the left page.

Title set in Michaux Bold. Left page shows a piece of lettering by Eager Zhang, part of her series “Family Portraits”.

Quote from Eager Zhang’s essay set in Michaux Bold for the English and Michaux Light for the French.

Title set in a generously squeezed Jester World. On the left we can spot bits of Ellmer Stefan’s asemic writing research.

Quotes from a conversation on asemic writing with type designer Stefan Ellmer ( The Pyte Foundry)

Title set in all-caps Nostra Sett

Title set in warped Ready Bygone Light, with a few floating outlined glyphs from Michaux Bold

Title set in all-caps Nostra Stream, together with works from Zuzana Licko

Title set in Ready Active Bold, with illustration by Arman Mohtadji. Left page shows bits of Tangly by Zuzana Licko / Emigre.

“Express Exegesis”, set on a circle in Jester Sun with a whole lot of negative tracking. The right page features the work of Julien Priez, a.k.a. Boogy Paper, with the unreleased Montreuil, his diploma project from Estienne ESAIG back in 2011.

SEED was Brooklyn-based sculptor Brian Oakes’ first solo exhibition with gallery Blade Study, taking place between September and October 2024.

From Blade Study:

Everything starts with organic processes, even industrialization and its decline. To seed is to put creation into motion and refers to any input used to initialize a generative process. The artist’s mechanized artworks explore a commodities journey from conception, production, and logistics, finally landing at display.

The communication uses Plain Form’s organic all-caps script Ready Active Light, which very much echoes the grown crystals, electric circuits and other similar elements present in Brian Oakes’ work. It is accompanied by Phlegm and Inter, while the gallery's logo uses PVC Banner.

Brian Oakes, Display Case 3 (A Mind), 2024

Bleib doch noch is a photography exhibition by twelve students of the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, taking place between March and April 2025 at Kulturfabrik, a culture center in the neighborhood of Moabit in Berlin, Germany.

From their Instagram account:

The works explore both inner and outer journeys – the experience of growing up, the process of bidding farewell. They tell stories of relationships, change, and arrival. Moments of searching, holding on, and letting go – an attempt to create connections. All that remains is invited to stay a little longer.

Graphic design studio Rimini Berlin designed a poster, foldable into a booklet, as well as assets for social media, using Plain Form’s Grandmaster for the title, Dinamo’s Rom for secondary information and Pangram Pangram’s Editorial New for the list of names and all other texts.

With works from: Marie Buchholz, Camille Cellier, Javier Gonzalez, Yuma Greco, Peter Kronenberg, Kaichen li, Ferdinand Peuker, Joëlle Quintin, Carl Raabe, Laura Stauth, Nicole Wozniak and Michael Zech. The photo on the poster is by Ferdinand Peuker, 2024.

The magazine logo uses Flood, see the post about issue 28.

This 56th issue of the French cinema magazine La Septième Obsession is dedicated to American filmmaker John McTiernan, with a 100-pages focus on the subject with movies reviews (Die Hard, Predator, etc,), an interview with French film director and screenwriter Arnaud Desplechin, and various thematic essays.

Like in most issues since 2020, texts are set in Lyon and Surt, while titles use an all-caps Grandmaster. The cover title seems to be set in NYC. This typeface is similar to ITC Machine as used for McTiernan’s 1987 movie Predator. There is also a free font called Predator Movie that copies the uppercase of NYC.

Exhibition poster

Parisian art gallery Natalie Seroussi hosts an exhibition of the work of Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter Henri Michaux (1899–1984), with a focus on ink and pencil drawings.

The exhibition communication and accompanying printed catalog were designed by Doc Levin / Léo Quetglas. The title as well as all texts and poems from Henri Michaux are set in Benjamin Dumond’s Michaux, an homage to the artist's work. When Henri Michaux explored a loss of control in the production of written shapes through the use of narcotics, the typeface relies on computer scripts for the same purpose. Benjamin Dumond wrote a program to generate thousands of random three-stroke signs, then proceeded to subjectively select those which looked most like letters, numbers and other glyphs.

All captions and supporting info are set in Avenir.

Cover of the printed catalog

Backcover of the printed catalog

Raise Your Voice is a zine published by Baltan Laboratories, a “cultural indisciplinary lab [focusing] on societal issues through a relational approach, creating spaces to rehearse living otherwise.”

From Baltan Laboratories:

In an era where societal and cultural challenges intersect with creative practices, Raise Your Voice emerges as a reflection of collective growth and critical inquiry. This zine captures the essence of a unique five-month coaching trajectory that brought together emerging designers, thinkers, and makers in a collaborative exploration of community, perspectives, and systems.

Separated in three chapters – Community, Perspectives and Systems – Raise Your Voice was created in collaboration with the alumni department of Design Academy Eindhoven and Master Institute of Visual Cultures of St. Joost ’s-Hertogenbosch, and features three essays by invited writers Silvio Lorusso, Gijs de Boer and Ned Kaar.

The zine consists of seven printed objects of various nature, including a booklet, a poster, a bookmark and a postcard-size photo – one of them is folded to contain the whole, held together by what seems to be a brown paper strip. Visual coherence comes from earthy tones of beige, grey and brown, as well as a limited choice of typefaces.

The design uses several weights of Ready Active, both as initials and standalone titling typeface, paired with Neue Haas Grotesk.

Editor: Ishani Chatterjee
Photographer: Barbara Medo

Moving Mountains is the first institutional solo exhibition of Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi, held between May and October 2024 at Hayy Jameel, an art center located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

From Hayy Jameel:

This ambitious new work continues Alamoudi’s expansive exploration of rapidly changing social and cultural environments, situating Saudi’s natural and urban landscapes as sites of possibility – punctured by effort and powered by fantasy – where both individual and collective attempts to do the seemingly impossible are imbued with humour, absurdity and, at times, hopefulness.

The exhibition title is set in Michaux (with a few modified letters) for the Latin, and 29LT Okaso for the Arabic. The artist’s name is in Georgia Italic. All other text is set in Greta Text. The color palette or light grey and warm brown reflect the title of the show, with the addition of a subtle, neon green pattern.

Note the modified letters in Michaux: in Bold, the uppercase M is a thickened version of the Regular; in Light, M and n are altered versions of the original glyphs.

The magazine logo uses Flood, see the post about issue 28.

This 55th issue of the French cinema magazine La Septième Obsession is dedicated to women and horror movies, including interviews with filmmakers Coralie Fargeat and Robert Eggers, as well as movie reviews (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, The Silence of the Lambs…) and thematic essays.

Most texts are set in Lyon and Surt, while titles use an all-caps Grandmaster (occasionally with modified letters). Several covers exist, one featuring The Substance and using Signal Compressed, the other featuring Nosferatu and using Bradley DJR as well as Hans Fraktur.

Note the modified uppercase R in the title.

Note the modified uppercase R in the title.

Alternate cover using Bradley DJR and Hans Fraktur

Le Sens du Vivant is a program focusing on practice and experiential experience in the somatic field, based in Lyon, France. The logo, identity and printed booklet were created by Atelier Claire Rolland, with help from Paul Andali. Together with photographer and visual artist Blandine Soulage, they created a photographic series of colorful “body landscapes”.

Most text is set in Blackletra’s Gal Gothic, paired with Plain Form’s flowing Nostra Stream, used as initials, or alternates in the middle of titles.

This 54th issue of the French cinema magazine La Septième Obsession is dedicated to American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, with a 100-pages focus on the subject from classics like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now to the most recent Megalopolis.

Most texts are set in Lyon and Surt, while titles use Grandmaster in all caps (occasionally with modified letters). The cover title is in Apocalypse Now, a typeface that imitates the title lettering for the eponymous movie.

The magazine logo uses Flood, see the post about issue 28.

Note the modified uppercase “R” in the title.

The Cool Words exhibition, organized by the Nanjing University of the Arts (China), is an event for type researchers, designers, and academics. The exhibition fosters innovation and exploration in the field of letter design. Since its inception in 2016, the exhibition has been held six times, receiving support and participation from the international design community, as well as from faculty and students.

In 2024, German graphic designer Götz Gramlich was invited to participate with the theme “Dragon”. His contribution, a striking typographic poster, presents a sort of fusion of Latin and Chinese characters — the former, set in a modified version of Plain Form’s Ready Clouded, featuring some physical attributes of the legendary creature. Additional information is set vertically using the condensed sans Grandmaster in all-caps.

The Chinese characters are from PingFang.

The two-colour screen print measures 130×90 cm and ws printed by Lézard Graphique (France).

Caractères is a type-centered design conference organized in Lyon, France, with five talks taking place in the course of a school year. The first edition began in October 2023 and gave the floor to some local designers: Lucas Descroix, Emma Marichal, Juliette Flécheux, Max Esnée, and Alice Savoie.

The communication was developed by Emma Marichal, centered around Plain Form’s Ready Active in its heaviest weight — making it the first-ever use of this quasi-illegible style — paired with Production Type's Gamuth and, for each speaker, a typeface that they either designed or used in recent projects. These are: Lucas Descroix's Paraiso, Emma Marichal's Ploquine, Salmanazar as used by Juliette Flécheux in her Dossier Scriptorium de Toulouse, Max Esnée's unreleased Laurifer and Alice Savoie's Loire, a bespoke typeface for the Val de Loire territory.

Caractères is organized by Rémi Forte, in partnership with the design school Strate and the type foundry 205TF.

Daisy is a 16mm short film created by director David J Adams in late 2023, featuring model Daisy Parker, together with poems that she wrote and then read.

The graphics were designed by London-based creative studio and publisher Cash & Carry. The title is set in Plain Form's Ready Active, sporting a bold red and a slight three-dimensional effect, as if traced with lipstick – or written in blood. Credits and subtitles use Dinamo's Gaisyr Mono with its recognizable ‘butterfly’ serifs.

Following the release of her seventh studio album The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We in late 2023, American singer and songwriter Mitski published lyric videos for each of the eleven tracks.

Created by Rena Johnson, these videos are all quite consistent, with collages of “intimate and beautiful super 8 footage of Mitski” shot by Mitchell King under direction of Ebru Yıldız, together with additional footage by Johnson.

Following the album art and accompanying communication, designed by Mary Banas, these videos feature a mix of Ready Active and Tofino. The first one, an organic-looking all-caps script, is set centered, in a big size and bright orange color. Given its somewhat ‘inhospitable’, challenging legibility, and the usual purpose of a lyric video, the display typeface is given subtitles, set in all-caps Tofino, in white.

These videos have been created in English, the original language of the songs, but also in Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, in which cases the lyrics set in Ready Active stay the same and only the ‘subtitle’ part, in white, is adapted. The Japanese version replaces Tofino with what looks like Kozuka Gothic [edit: or rather Hiragino Kaku Gothic, see comments].