10/18 is a publishing house from Paris, France, founded in 1962. Its name derives from “10×18 centimeters” and emblematically stands for the concept to exclusively publish paperback books. The house gained special reputation in the 1970s and 80s with its publishing lines dedicated to social sciences and the literary “nouveau roman” genre. Further prominent fields of activity are foreign, non-French literature, detective novels and French classics.

Into this last domain fall the three titles featured in this post: novels by Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), of which The Three Musketeers might be the most famous. Responsible for their covers is Camille Guitton, a self-employed graphic designer working between Paris and Nantes. In her design she merges historic illustrations with an expressive typeface, PVC Dynasty by Hélène Marian.

Part of a collection of three distinct designs published in Production Type’s LAB section, PVC Dynasty can be described as a narrow display roman with an extreme x-height and high stroke contrast. Its expressive spiky legs in K and R and the serifs remind of French typeface designs from around 1900.

République Studio designed the annual report 2021 of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Cnap). Each year, the Cnap ask a different French graphic design studio to take care of the design. It’s a very free subject. Cnap hands the contents to the studio which has then complete freedom to chose format, paper, printer, the organization, and, above all, how to create the design and especially the data visualization part. The latter is really important for Cnap because it explains where all the money goes and all the investments are made.

République Studio decided to create a very vernacular design, let’s say brutalist, without any flourish or colors whatsoever. The entire interior is set in Antique Legacy, in a single weight and size, using a very strict grid. The big challenge was to find a way to prioritize the information. One other typeface is used for the interviews at the beginning of the book: Rhymes by Jakub Samek, used in a more organic way. All data visualization is accomplished with typography only – which makes it very unique. The textual content is shown separate from the images and treated exclusively in black and white, except for the data which uses a Cool Grey spot color. The book is printed on a rough bulky paper. The images are printed in CMYK on glossy paper.

Ryan Spacey, under the creative direction of Jessica Wels (VP of Creative at Sweat Betty), led the visual direction and design for The rē·spin Edit. Developed by Bristish retailer Sweaty Betty in collaboration with Halle Berry’s Rē·spin, the collection combines functional wear and lifestyle pieces. The 22-piece limited-edition collection was inspired by the world of boxing and Japanese jiu-jitsu.

The design includes shop fronts, the VIP gifting experience, POS, lookbooks, and packaging. It uses Iskry by Laïc Type Foundry, paired with Futura (Linotype), the brand’s identity typeface.

Powerful typographic campaign for Nike Basketball designed by Berlin based studios Hort and Tim+Tim.

Rhymes was built on the proportions of the original undigitized Times New Roman (Monotype, series 327, 48p) template. Specific drawings of several letters and its details come from another derivation, Times Books.

The font has a broad range of 8 weights (674 glyphs per each weight), which are especially in light styles revealing the unrecognized potential of the original Times. Rhymes is less utilitarian and robust, more display and delicate. Rather than a redesign, it is a continuation, a rhyme. — Jakub Samek

See also the Evolution project page at UMPRUM.