Hi Lab is a cannabis brand based in Vevey, Switzerland. In contrast with their natural product, they went for a minimal black-and-white branding and packaging design. The only eccentric details are the tilted baselines of the wordmark and the font used for the whole, NaN Fiasco, a geometric sans with voluntary inconsistencies giving it some vividness.

Every packaging features the mandatory health warning set in Neue Helvetica LT 75 Bold. The font choice is prescribed by the Swiss law:

[…] en caractères Neue Helvetica LT 75 Bold, en minuscules, sauf pour la première lettre du message ou lorsque l’orthographe l’exige

Unofficial English translation:

in the Neue Helvetica LT 75 Bold font, in lowercase, except for the first letter of the message or when the orthography needs it

Tropographies 2015–2020 brings together a selection of manipulated photographs taken by Nicolas Delaroche at 41 exhibition venues in Switzerland and abroad. These images are paired with abstract forms derived from architectural sketches created by the artist in the same locations, as well as a series of evocative texts written by Gabrielle Boder.

The book invites readers to wander through the physical and virtual locations of the exhibitions. It blurs boundaries, transforming the subject matter of the photographs, the composition of spaces, and the origins of creative ideas. The result is a playful and thought-provoking interplay of visuals and words—a quirky dialogue between Delaroche’s imagery and Boder’s poetic reflections.

With its blend of photography, architecture, and literature, Tropographies 2015–2020 offers an unconventional exploration of artistic distortion, encouraging readers to reimagine how we perceive spaces and art.

The publication was designed by GUNMAD and published by Swiss publisher TSAR Books.

Riso print: Frau Steiner. Digital print: Graphius.

Excerpt from Bandcamp:

Whatdufaque?! Dutch artist Renée Van Trier is back on Swiss label CAF? for another record! Following her first album released in early 2020, she comes back with “HUMBLE” the soundtrack of her new eponymous show performed at De Pont Museum (NL) and Arsenic (CH).

“At birth you are a promise, but at the same time also the greatest possible risk.” Inspired by children’s dances on TikTok where happy facades coexist with exploitative backgrounds, Renée Van Trier creates a fantasy world that’s anything but Disneyland. You’re invited to experience its soundtrack, taking you through dark atmospheres, eerie voices, glitched techno, and uplifting climaxes. Over the course of the 11 tracks, Renée Van Trier morphs into a dolphin, a puppet, and many other different characters, maintaining a blurry border between amazement and creepiness. “Everyone wants the best for their children, but sometimes it doesn't end well.”

TWK Everett (by Nolan Paparelli) was used again on the back cover of the fourteenth release of the independent music label CAF? titled HUMBLE. The vinyl features artwork photography, drawings and handwriting by Renée van Trier herself and was designed by Julien Fischer and Pablo Perez.

Excerpt from Bandcamp:

Renée van Trier is a transdisciplinary artist that mourns the loss of the comfort of disconnected life. Her songs will soothe our anxieties, heal our torments and make us smile for weeks. The sixth CAF? release is skipping between genres such as songwriting, punk, breakcore, jungle, hardcore and parody. Have fun!

TWK Everett (by Nolan Paparelli) was used on the back cover of the sixth release of the independent music label CAF? titled Something of What We’ve Lost. The vinyl features artwork photography, drawings and handwriting by Renée van Trier herself and was designed by Julien Fischer and Pablo Perez.

From publisher Éditions Images Vevey:

Each Poison, A Pillow combines fragments from found footage, private archives and digital interfaces to present a candid approach on the topic of women and alcohol(ism). While looking at the phenomenon of female drinking behaviors, Stefanie Moshammer is also reflecting on her own family story, interweaving social media content, medical and scientific research, as well as advertisements.

Dominicale is valued for its crafty flavor, featuring angular and incisive shapes reminiscent of the primitive engraving style found in early European printing characters around the beginning of the 16th century. Its humanistic structure and close association with calligraphy lend it a warm tone, particularly effective when focusing on human subjects.

Sarabande à Deux by Reymour (Lou Savary and Luc Bersier) is the fifth release on CAF? a Swiss record label. Recorded between Fribourg and Bruxelles during spring 2019, the record has been published in January 2020 both in digital and vinyl format.

The album cover has been designed by Julien Fischer and Pablo Perez, mixing illustrations by Sebastien Rück and Lou Savary with photographs by Julie Folly. The titling typeface for this EP record is IKANSEEYOUALL while Simplon Norm is used on each release by the label. The sametypefaces are used in the music video for the track Visage Espiègle.

IKANSEEYOUALL and Simplon Norm are available from Swiss Typefaces.

[More info on Discogs]

With Grace Core’s luminously warm debut EP, KRSNA, the artist has offered up a hi-energy provocative style blended with possessed chanting, modern pop, post-rave and hypnotic trance. These elements have come together to occupy a remarkably weird place all its own.

KRSNA started out as a custom version of NewPanam Skyline (formerly NewParis Skyline), made for two vinyl record sleeves, namely KRSNA & KRSNA RMX, by Geneva-based musician Grace Core. This experimental typeface abandons the convention of a continuous baseline and introduces a three-storey space where the letters can sit at the top, center or bottom, with the remaining space filled by bars and spikes. The resulting word images are captivating patterns with logo-like qualities.

KRSNA is part of the Lab typefaces. NewPanam Skyline is part of the NewPanam collection. Both typefaces are available from Swiss Typefaces.

Type Life #1 was the first edition in a series of printed publications about design, typography and lifestyle, presented by Swiss Typefaces. Published in June 2017, it was soon sold out. Letter lovers who missed out on securing a copy can now rejoice: Type Life #1 is available again. The new edition is not just a reprint, but an enhanced update. It boosts four more pages and a revised design with new colors. The content was extended, too. In addition to new images, version 2 features several new typefaces that were created in the past months.

Type Life is packed to the brim with letterforms, and yet it is not a specimen. It’s a celebration of style and a wellspring of inspiration. Instead of long texts, there are lots of images, including photography, illustration, lettering, and exclusive previews of upcoming typefaces, forming a highly visual experience. Each issue is devoted to one chosen theme, and is made in collaboration with guest artists, illustrators, and designers. The printing process along with the use of metallic and neon colors is a key aspect. Apart from the format of a newspaper magazine, the identity of Type Life changes with every issue, depending on the topics and the guests.

The inaugural issue is about the Lab. In this Research & Development department, the designers of Swiss Typefaces explore new ideas for future fonts. Two of the Lab fonts are showcased in detail: BRRR is a playful wide Grotesk with a great deal of disruptive details. A spin-off from Simplon Mono, it was initially created to design a poster series for Swiss artist Simon Paccaud. KRSNA started out as a custom version of NewPanam Skyline, made for two vinyl record sleeves by Geneva-based musician Grace Core. This experimental typeface abandons the convention of a continuous baseline and introduces a three-storey space where the letters can sit at the top, center or bottom, with the remaining space filled by bars and spikes. The resulting word images are captivating patterns with logo-like qualities. Type Life reveals how BRRR and KRSNA came into being by depicting preliminary sketches, evolutionary steps, and photos of experiments made during trips. Reproductions of the very first applications show the fonts in context.

The updated edition also provides a glimpse into two upcoming Lab releases. KOPYME is a brutalist typeface with monospaced characters of extra wide proportions. Its horizontal nature is offset by diagonals that shoot across the glyph space like laser beams. They crash through the baseline, extending the underlying grid by a fourth underground level, and adding to the KOPYME’s kinetic energy. Black Mamba is an offshoot of the SangBleu series. Its swash letterforms are melting and churning as if they were drawn under the influence of the intoxicating Aztec elixirs mentioned in “The King, His Court, The Explorer & The Gift”, the essay included in the SangBleu Book.

Guest contributor is Thomas Louzoun aka Zombie Tears, a French art director, illustrator and tattoo artist. His whimsical drawings and handmade letterings were created specifically for Type Life. They are complemented by samples of recently released fonts like the fat display serif IKANSEEYOUALL and the bonkers Euclid Stencil, and previews of fonts that were in the making at the time of the publication, like new styles for TheW Clan (ODB & GZA, in addition to already released RZA).

An underlying theme in Type Life #1 is the confrontation of opposites. Systematic typography is interspersed with footloose lettering, accurate vector shapes are shown side by side with drippy comic blackletter. Highbrow clashes with subculture when an icon of the Swiss International Style gets remixed with street art. Past meets present also in the typeface designs that always and inevitably are contextualized in history. The digital is contrasted with the analog, the local with the cosmopolitan, the abstract with the personal. On a formal level, all of this is represented by the combination of uncoated newsprint and glamorous spot colors. The unique color palette featuring Pantone neon colors along with silver and black is a defining element of the publication’s identity.

Type Life issue #1 v2 was printed in an edition of 1,500 copies. It is now available exclusively from Physical Company. Fonts are available on Swiss Typefaces.

Cover, with magazine logo set in Ikanseeyouall. The theme is set in SangBleu OG Condensed, with showings of Krsna and Kopyme underneath.

outlined Krsna used as a frame.

Type amidst lettering by Thomas Louzoun: “Type Life Choose Us” is set in Black Mamba.

Capital K’s set in Euclid Stencil and Krsna. The font names are set in Brrr .

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Lovers of type, rejoice! The second issue of Type Life brings a cornucopia of visual inspiration that will warm the cockles of the typographer’s heart. On 36 pages – a whopping 16 more than in the inaugural issue – Swiss Typefaces presents insights into their cosmos of style, fonts, and fashion. Type Life is the only place where you’ll find both Rihanna and Rudolf Koch, where social media snippets are framed by engravings from the Caslon type foundry, and where a douk-douk knife ends up next to a 15th-century Danse Macabre. As usual, Type Life doesn’t make many words, and instead shows plenty of letterforms. Printed in no less than seven Pantone spot colors, the publication features rotated and mirrored words, slanted roman page numbers, radial gradients and all the other things your design prof wouldn’t approve of.

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Left: Sang Bleu magazine issues Zero (2007), III/IV (2009), 5 (2010), 6 (2012). Sang Bleu Uniqueness, limited edition project for My Design District (2008).
Right: SangBleu Sex (private) and an early version of SangBleu Kingdom typefaces. Spreads of Sang Bleu magazine issues 5, III/IV and 6.

At the center of issue 2 is Sang Bleu. That’s the name both of a typeface from Swiss Typefaces, and of an independent multi-disciplinary media platform and creative agency. The two were initiated together and share a common history. From the very first incarnation in 2007 to the new SangBleu typeface completed in 2017, the SangBleu typographic identity has built a legacy for itself. Many SangBleu fonts debuted in the Sang Bleu magazine, a publication about fashion, tattoo culture and more. Some of them later made their way into the Swiss Typefaces catalog of retail fonts, others remained private, like the runic-looking SangBleu Sex. Yet others were at one point available for licensing, but now are retired, like the supertight SangBleu G-String.

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Left: Vogue Türkiye cover using SB Vogue Turkey (custom typeface) and BRRR, September 2012 (SWTY remix). Right: Vogue Brazil cover using SB Vogue Brazil (custom typeface), June 2011 (SWTY remix).

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Left: SB Vogue Brazil and SB Vogue Turkey (custom typefaces).
Right: Rihanna by Mariano Vivanco and SB Vogue Brazil (custom typeface), Vogue Brazil, May 2014.

Since 2010, Vogue Magazine commissioned several custom versions of the SangBleu typeface from Swiss Typefaces, for their Brazilian and Turkish editions. SangBleu Vogue Turkey is based on the Sans, with the dots of Ü vertically arranged within the interior shape, so that all-caps headlines can be set big, with minimal line-spacing. SangBleu Vogue Brazil is derived from the Serif, with longer serifs and luscious swash capitals. Type Life shows reproductions of covers and feature pages, next to remix versions that give a hint what Vogue would look like if Swiss Typefaces were in charge.

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

A preview of an unreleased script typeface [edit: this typeface was released in 2022 as Raskal Oner]

Swiss Typefaces doesn’t do scripts, right? Wrong! SangBleu Snakes is a script variant of SangBleu, or, more precisely, a partly connnected cursive, with swash alternates, crazy ligatures, and twitchy strokes that look like the typographic equivalent of static noise. This experimental font is here shown in detail for the first time, together with an in-use example from 2014, when it appeared on a limited-edition series of skateboards. [edit: this typeface was released in 2022 as Raskal Oner.]

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Contribution by Studio Jimbo

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

KRSNA vs. Caslon.

Each issue of Type Life features a guest artist. This time it’s Studio Jimbo from Paris. In their contribution, letterforms from the SangBleu and KRSNA typefaces dissolve in a blizzard of halftone dots, with a death’s head staring at you from the eye of the storm. This leads to an introduction of the all-new SangBleu typeface, released in October 2017 in five full-featured collections – Empire, Kingdom, Republic, Versailles, and Sunrise – each in a range of weights with matching italics, in Latin and Cyrillic, spanning 45 styles in total.

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Left: Engraving found in Caslon Old Face Roman and Italic, published by H.W. Caslon & Co., 1924.

The fonts are accompanied by a prestigious book release. SangBleu Typeface: The King, His Court, The Explorer & The Gift is more than a formidable printed specimen: It includes a short novel by Daniela Party, specifically written for this purpose. Set in the 17th century, it narrates the story of Metzli, an indigenous Mexican woman who is captured and sent as a gift to Louis XIV, the Sun King – a gift that would set off a series of macabre events involving witchcraft, lust, envy, and death. The book is available in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.swisstypefaces.com Photo: Swiss Typefaces. Swiss Typefaces. License: All Rights Reserved.

SangBleu Typeface book, SWTY Publishing, 2017

Finally, the back cover offers a glimpse into Euclid, which has been expanded with four new collections. Chances are that this typeface will be featured in depth in an upcoming issue of Type Life. For more info and availability, visit Swiss Typefaces.

Rocking Chair (RKC) is a concert hall in Vevey that has established itself in the Swiss musical landscape and has remained there for more than 25 years. Julien Fischer designed the seasonal posters and flyers.

Magazine title set in SangBleu Empire, number in SangBleu Courtesan, subtitle in TheW Clan ODB and fine print in Suisse Int’l.

In the third issue of Type Life, Swiss Typefaces take a look beyond their own work and celebrate contemporary type made by others. The Swiss design studio compiled a selection of their favorite typefaces, licensed the fonts and used them to design a magazine. The resulting specimen of “Non-Swiss Typefaces We Like 1569–2018” comes with a text by Florian Hardwig (Fonts In Use) and is visually enriched with works by lettering artist Julien Priez (boogypaper).

Type Life 3 showcases 19 fonts from 19 international foundries: 29Letters, Adobe Type, Commercial Type, CSTM Fonts, Dinamo Typefaces, DSType, Extrabrut.Shop, Future Fonts, Hoefler & Co., Letters From Sweden, Linotype, Milieu Grotesque, Or Type, Production Type, Sharp Type, Sportsfonts.com, The Enschedé Font Foundry, Typotheque, and Velvetyne Typefoundry. The selection is a representative sample for the diversity in type design and gives an illuminating overview of the current scene. While the majority of the fonts was released in the past few years, many draw inspiration from all kinds of sources from previous eras. There is blackletter, script, slab serif, sans serif, and more. This – a stress on newness, historical references, and a vast stylistic plurality – reflects three major trends in today’s typography, as Florian Hardwig points out in his introduction. Other recurring themes that he identifies as being symptomatic for 2018 include highly conceptual projects and a quest for extreme aesthetics. At the same time there are functional fonts designed to solve specific problems. Just like the fonts, the type designers who created them have diverse backgrounds, in terms of geography, or how they entered the field. The represented distribution models range from traditional licensing to subscriptions, free and open-sourced fonts, as well as experimental or even unfinished releases.

Each issue of Type Life features a guest contributor. This time it’s the up-and-coming French lettering artist Julien Priez. A graduate of École Estienne, Paris, he’s a member of the international collective High on Type, best known for organizing the annual festival All Eyes on Type. Priez gives workshops at various schools and is an instructor at the prestigious TypeParis program. His work oscillates between the analog and the digital. Alphabets are first calligraphed, then cut in wood, and eventually digitized. Priez is just as comfortable painting meter-high letters with a triple brush on a wood fence as he is animating ornate pixel letters with kaleidoscopic patterns. Type Life #3 shows a range of his repertoire, starting with a still from his animated Nightmare Alphabet and two of his in-progress fonts Boogyroma and Boogylink on the cover. Mandinor Gothic is used to render the word “KING” on top of a kinetic gesture. The next page answers with “KONG”, in letterforms that pay homage to Jean Midolle’s Alphabet Lapidaire Monstre from 1835. With such historical references and the stunning stylistic versatility, Priez’ work is a perfect fit for the content of this issue.

At a whopping 40 pages, Type Life 3 is the most substantial issue so far. It’s printed in three Pantone spot colors plus silver and black, on two different paper stocks including transparent paper.

“Dream” set in Boogyroma and “Chasers” set in Boogylink, two in-progress typefaces by Julien Priez. Foundry names set in TheW Clan GZA by Swiss Typefaces. The caption that mentions the typefaces is set in Suisse Int’l Condensed.

Essay, set in SangBleu Republic (body text) and Suisse Int’l Mono (streamers, side notes). The green type on the left and at the very top of the right page is KOPYME As Uzual.

Galapagos (Felix Salut, Dinamo) and Xprmntal 01 (CSTM Fonts) visiting each other’s page. Typeface names (top) are in KRSNA. In the margins left and right, the foundry names are set in stacked letters from KOPYME (Swiss Typefaces).

Winner (Sportsfonts.com) × Quarto (Hoefler & Co.)

A pattern of Patron (Milieu Grotesque) with a guest appearance by Vincent (Letraset) is juxtaposed with a collage featuring elements from a Caslon Old Face specimen by H.W. Caslon & Co. from 1924.

On the left, a page from the book Il perfetto Scrittore Di M. Gio. Francesco Cresci, Italy, 16th century. On the right, (raster) pattern tiles are mixed with Frank Adebiaye’s Montchauve (Velvetyne).

Perfil (DSType) and Cardinal (Production Type). Cameo: Magnificat.

Julien Priez’ Mandinor Gothic in combination with his lettering.

Pattern by Julien Priez, printed in fluorescent and metallic ink.

Separat (Gunmad, OR Type) on the left, and Azal (Pascal Zoghbi, 29 Letters) as well as a tag lettering on the right hand.

Times Europa (Linotype) vs. Line (Letters from Sweden), with interventions by Good Vibrations and Block Up (Letraset).

Type that looks like it cannot be moved, and type that looks like it couldn’t sit still for a second: Berton Hasebe’s Styrene (Commercial Type) and Jérémy Landes’ Digestive (Triple Studio).

Thesaurus Display (Typotheque) × Respira Black (Sharp Type)

Feature page with Benoît Brun’s Shakotan (work in progress), printed in neon spot color.

On the left, a selection of A monograms (mostly dating back to the 15th and 16th century) shine through their overlying page with a big silver A set in Bram de Does’ Lexicon No. 2 (The Enschedé Font Foundry).

Pull quote in SangBleu Sunrise, printed in silver metallic ink.

Back cover with a sneak preview of the upcoming KOPYME and SuisseU.

Tango with tight-and-overlapping spacing

Established in the early 1980s, the Théâtre de Poche de la Grenette in Vevey offers a program focused primarily on comedy. The signs at the building and in the city appear to stem from its early days; they are set in Letraset Tango, designed by Colin Brignall in 1974. The current logo features four lines of all-caps Futura with some modifications.

Logo (2016)

Season program for the 35th anniversary in 2016/2017

#helvet is a new magazine about luxury in the Swiss moutains. The publications use Suisse Works as part of their branding.

Suisse Works is part of Suisse typeface, available from Swiss Typefaces.

Ariane Bosshard and Olivier Huz chose the font Helvetius, created by Matthieu Cortat, to design the layout of the artist book Untitled Reloaded by Jacob Bendjama and Sébastien Leseigneur, published by Micronaut Éditions.

Huz & Bosshard used two secondary sans serif fonts in the colophon: Futura Renner’s old style figures for the page numbers and the print run, Fluxisch Else (AKA UniversElse) for the artists’ initials.

Swiss designers Balmer Hählen were in charge of the invitation for Rendez-vous des créateurs. They won the TDC Prize of the Tokyo TDC Annual Awards 2018 with this project.

For the 2017 invitation, printing takes surprising forms and pushes the limits of technology. She defies all rules and enjoys it, going so far as to tamper with paper to bring a new dimension to the object. Balmer Hählen designed this invitation with a starting idea: What’s going on if the impression took over the graphic design? Thus cut-outs, textures, glossy varnish and hot printed matter takes over and modify the typography. The materials confront each other to offer a perfect alchemy. The contrasts sublime by opposing their textures. The shiny effects reveal their luminosity by imposing itself on matte papers. — Balmer Hählen

Suisse Int'l is part of the Suisse typeface, available from Swiss Typefaces.

Save the date — screen printed; transparent holographic hot foil; 3D embossing

Poster — holographic black silk screen, 2mm flocking

Poster design for the 2016 edition of music festival Nox Orae.
Designed by Ultra Studio, Vevey.

Euclid Flex typeface is available from Swiss Typefaces.

Web adaptation by Simon Pinkas

Q-KJU is a restaurant, bar and club in Vevey, Switzerland. The visual identity was designed by the graphic design studio ultra:studio.

The NewParis collection is available from Swiss Typefaces.

The collection Rudolf Schindler at Musée Jenisch Vevey.
Catalog published by Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich. Design by Bonbon.