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.

The publication Geopolitics is part of an exhibition identity for a series curated by Chun-chi Wang (Idolon Studio). It explores artworks related to geopolitical borders.

This bilingual publication features texts in Arabic and English, printed on one type of paper with distinct color schemes for each language. A magenta elastic band allows the book to be read from both sides, with two covers reflecting its dual-language format. The green silkscreen-printed cover is produced in our workshop, referencing the interior artwork.

The first exhibition was held at Al Madina Theater, Beirut, Lebanon, from November 29 to December 19, 2021, as part of the larger series Contemporary Art from Taiwan—Exhibitions, Screenings, Publications, featuring artists Chen Shiau-Peng, Ting Chaong-Wen, and Liu Ho-Jang. The artworks address themes of geopolitics and broader questions of aesthetics and politics.

Sleek #77 was themed around the topic of “Trust – Vertrauen”, featured David Schütter on the cover (photographed by Nti) and included pieces on/with Svenja Jung, Ragnar Axelsson, Gabriele Quandt, Carlo Ratti, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Hyesoo Chung, Clara Borrelli, Nicolas Cuenca, Ferry Mohr, and Lynette Garland.

The printed issue was designed by Christophe Synak and Lorenzo Louis Pradelli, with headlines set in HAL Colant, published by HAL Typefaces. The other fonts in use are ABC Monument Grotesk with Mono by Dinamo.

We feel a constant and rising sense of invasion: parasites, notifications, drugs, bodies, catastrophes, aliens. But the line between who invades and who is invaded can be more blurred than we usually think, heavily depending on perspectives.

INTRUSO Magazine challenges readers to step out of their comfort zone and break free from their confining filter bubbles. The magazine gathers investigations, opinions and interviews about topical and divisive issues, to question pre-established boundaries and power dynamics, encouraging dialogue and fostering a deeper appreciation of differing viewpoints.

Each issue of the magazine won’t be limited to a single topic, instead it will be a collection of opinions and essays around every kind of invasion we experience everyday. Issue 1 sets the tone of the magazine proposing many articles about science and nature, but also lighthearted contents like “how to choose the best sex toy?” or “why the heck kids are birthdays becoming so expensive?”

The logo is set in Airaz by Javier Unknos. Continuous text and headlines are set in Suisse Int’l by Swiss Typefaces. Inserts are set in Messina Modern by Luzi Type. Navigation, footnotes, credits and tags are set in Suisse Int’l Mono. The article “Opening up to parasites” additionally uses PicNic by Mariel Nils, and “A body inside a body: Maternidad” adds CirrusCumulus by Clara Sambot.

This issue counts 96 pages and measures 23.5×33.5 cm. Printed on Cyclus Offset 90g/m² paper. It was made as a student project at Elisava, Barcelona, in 2023.

For the project BeHere / 1942, the graphic design studio Folder Studio used the typefaces Immortel Infra, Vena and Colera by Clément Le Tulle-Neyret and available from 205TF.

From Folder Studio:

BeHere/1942 is a public art project and exhibition by Masaki Fujihata challenging the way we understand the experience of the forced relocation of Japanese Americans from Los Angeles in 1942 through a variety of media forms—from hyper-enlarged photographs to augmented reality technology.

The exhibition was shown at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. The catalog was edited by Michael Emmerich and Erkki Huhtamo and published by the Yanai Initiative and the Japanese American National Museum.

Exhibition poster

Exhibition poster

Signals from the Periphery was an international graphic design event that took place in 2017 at the Tallinn Art Hall in Estonia. The project brought together urgent developments in graphic design with a focus on practices that extend the field. These practices often expand into other cultural fields, while creating new hybrid forms, as well as seeking out new economic models to sustain themselves.

Signals from the Periphery encompassed an exhibition at the Tallinn Art Hall, a satellite exhibition at the EKA Gallery, an extensive public programme and a book that was published by EKA Press. The book is accompanied by the eighth issue of Dark and Stormy, a fanzine about writer’s block, black holes and surprising comebacks by Rustan Söderling and Bart de Baets, specially produced on the occasion of the exhibition Signals from the Periphery.

Publication
Editing: Elisabeth Klement & Laura Pappa
Translation: Martin Rünk
Copy editing (Estonian): Martin Rünk
Copy editing (English): Annie Goodner
Graphic design: Asterisk
Printing: Tallinn Book Printers
Publisher: EKA Press
Authors: Åbäke, Phil Baber, Evening Class, Paul Gangloff, François Girard-Meunier, Rudy Guedj, Bardhi Haliti, Marguerite Humeau, Tim Hunkin, Elisabeth Klement, Mathew Kneebone, Knock! Knock! Books, Laura Pappa, Partia e Fortë, Mirjam Reili.
Typefaces include: My Maps Sans​​​​​​, Arial, ITC Serif Gothic, LL Bradford and Neue Helvetica

Exhibition
Curators: Elisabeth Klement & Laura Pappa
Exhibition team: Ott Metusala, Karolin Nummert, Siim Preiman, Mirjam Reili
Design: fanfare (Lotte van de Hoef & Freja Kir), Ott Kagovere & Maria Muuk, Ott Metusala, Kaisa Sööt & Koit Randmäe, Elisabeth Klement & Laura Pappa
Graphic Design: Asterisk (Elisabeth Klement & Laura Pappa), Indrek Sirkel & Jan Tomson
Production: CNC Stuudio, Ott Metusala, OÜ Polli, Mihkel Lember, Kaisa Sööt & Koit Randmäe, Print24, Tekstiiliprint
Installation: Valge Kuup
Typefaces include: Computed Type, an early version of ABC Maxi Round, Brazil, Capitalis Brutalis and Clip

Satellite exhibition EKA Gallery
Supervisors: Else Lagerspetz & Loore Sundja

Website
Development: Ranno Ait
Typefaces: Lincoln/MITRE (David Bennewith with Bram van den Berg), Helvetica Neue and Arial

Megascope interspersed with Ed’s Market Bold Script

Studio Yukiko has created a playful, energetic, and—dare I say—delicious design for Door Dash’s Secret Menu magazine about local food culture. From Studio Yukiko:

This issue dives deep into Miami’s almighty hustle - A food scene boasting one of the wildest most diverse restaurant cultures in America. It follows stories of taco stands morphing into Michelin starred Italian spots, Black-owned vegan restaurants, reinvented Jewish delis, Cuban and Caribbean stalwarts, and so much more…

“Wild” and “diverse” could also be used to describe the issue’s design and typography. The fonts and layouts are playful, colorful, fun, and varied, with each article spread getting its own special typographic treatment. There is no shortage of sunset-like linear gradients, text effects like outlines and glows, and mixing of typefaces on the same line.

The eclectic design is united by a core palette of typefaces: Megascope is used across the issue for headlines, a callout to Miami’s connection to Art Deco. Random letters are replaced by Ed’s Market (both Script and Slant styles), bringing some movement and dynamism into the static, geometric typeface. Text is set in Surt and ITC Bookman, with Mrs Sheppards appearing in supporting text such as bylines. Jackpot Italic and Middleton Brush are featured on the cover, and Goudy Two Shoes, Compagnon (& Compagnon Bold), Promenades, Pipo, Generation September and Marlfield make special appearances in individual spreads. One of my favorite details is how the page numbers—mostly set in Megascope—become such a dominant part of the layout. A few tiny appearances of other guest typefaces (for photo credits, or a single word here and there) are not mentioned here.

The design team for this project included Sebastien Millot, Michelle Phillips, and Kir Nazarov, with production by Mike Teevee. David Amsden and Erin Ruffin are the editors-in-chief of the magazine. According to Phillips, “for the Miami Issue for Secret Menu, we wanted to bring the instantly recognisable world of Iconic Miami’s Mimo and Art Deco style together with its lax small-town scrappiness by combining a geometric sans (Megascope), with a brush script (Ed’s Market) to really bring out Miami’s almighty food culture scene.”

Cover ft. Jackpot and Middleton Brush for the title

Table of contents with Megascope for page numbers and headlines and Goudy Two Shoes for “Issue 02”. “Buzzworthy” is set in Compagnon Bold.

Text in ITC Bookman and Surt

Megascope with stacked glyphs and integrated into an image. The bold serif used for “Greater Miami” is Marlfield from Eliott Grunewald.

Megascope plus Ed’s Market with added stripes, compare Gadget. (The font used for “El Palacio de los jugos” is Balloon.)

Compagnon Bold with glossy effect

Megascope combined with Pipo Medium (“Flame”)

Megascope with staircase glyphs and Compagnon for captions

Megascope mixed with Ed’s Market Narrow Slant (“MM”) and Slant (“57”)

“The Great” and “Little Havana” are in Promenades.

Megascope with glow effect plus Generation September set on angle

Credits in Mrs Sheppards, text in Surt

Kéroïne and Authentic Sans are paired in the flyer and the brochure for Like Lava Inside Me. The exhibition by artist Klara Charlotte Zeitz, shown at Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel, Germany, from September 10th to November 13th, 2022:

How do we deal with the representation of violence and loss and what language do we find for it? How do we address feelings of pain, powerlessness and grief? What gives us the courage to change things in the long term? In the uprising against injustice and death, anger is the transformative force. It is generally considered negative and yet it is an essential part of rebelling against personal or societal grievances. It makes us stand up for self-worth and upheaval and is our moral compass against injustice.

New catalogue by Hochschule Düsseldorf for plans for a reuse of the university’s old campus site, developed by various students of the architecture faculty at Peter Behrens School of Arts. The task was divided in two groups: Studio Städtebau had to rethink the space in form of urban planning (yellow), Studio Hochbau the building construction (blue). As the results of both groups had to be treated equally in the design of the catalogue, book designer Yanik Hauschild proposed a book that can be read from both sides. The division of the content in two parts is presented instantly to the reader by the two background colours from all sides. That is why the book is produced with an exposed thread stitching and matching two-coloured edge painting. The typeface is Everett by Nolan Paparelli.

Pensée is a independent beauty and contemporary culture magazine and digital mag born in 2020. Pensée is the place where underground culture meets pop, giving unconventional models and personalities space to express themself. This title aims to become a cultural provocation and landmark of radical fashion, style, and graphics.

The magazine logo uses Stefanie Vogl’s yet unreleased Autark. The typeface on the cover and spine is Super Eighty by Michael Bagnardi. Text is set in Jan Estrada-Osmycki’s Wulkan, with Andy Karter’s Miratrix for headings. In further roles: Times New Ramen by Ryder Ripps and Protokoll by Tobias Holzmann.

The magazine is a personal design project and has not been published. See more images on Behance.

In its first issue, feeels tackles the concept of “fuzzy” from a myriad of critical perspectives. Written and visual pieces explore timely and timeless topics including fuzzy politics, foggy memories, language shifts, playful interactions between strangers, and clashes between modernism and cultural traditions. Contributors hail from a range of professional backgrounds—art, design, medicine, history, and sports mascots—and seven different countries, coming together in conversation through a common lens.

In its multi-faceted framework, feeeels highlights established and rising thinkers and makers, with often surprising interjections. At a moment when tactility is disregarded in pursuit of sleek, supposedly immaterial, digital interactions, we foreground it as a necessary foundation for understanding the 21st century.

See also the “Fuzzy Buzzy” insert.

A “writing surface for experimental sound practices”, Revue & Corrigée is a quarterly magazine on experimental movements in contemporary music, performance, cinema, dance, sound installation, and sound poetry. It was first published in 1988.

For the special 30th anniversary issue, French designer Hélène Marian was given carte blanche. She limited herself to a single color – red – but went all in with the typography, and indulged in a wild mix from several styles from her own PVC series. In addition to the extrawide PVC Banner (in regular and Ultra weights) and the punchy PVC Promo, the issue also has a preview of the upcoming PVC Dynasty. This sharp serif will further expand the range of the heterogeneous typeface collection. In a supporting role, another typeface from Production Type: Minotaur Sans is used for body copy.

Open Craft – Queer Materialism is an Arts & Crafts exhibition displaying works by 30 artisans at Stadsträdgården, Örebro, Sweden, June 8–September 1, 2019. The exhibition is shown in a greenhouse environment, thus becomes part of the daily operation at the location.

Queer is something that does not align, which does not meet our expectations. Queer occupies a different position, challenges conventions and opens up new interpretative opportunities. Queer is not static, since categories are established and become conventions, is a queer approach always in the border country, heading for the unexplored. — opencraft.se

The graphic concept takes inspiration from crafts such as patchwork reflected in patterns and shapes as well as the layout of the typography. The title typography is custom-made and the colour palette reflects the soil, greenery, sky, and sun at the location of the exhibition.

The typography uses two typefaces with roots in the late 19th, early 20th century: Or Lemmen is inspired by Antiqua, a typeface designed by Belgian neo-impressionist painter Georges Lemmen; Maple (Process Type) takes cues from early grotesks. Both typefaces are used within the catalogue and on the poster. The monospaced Neue Machina (Pangram Pangram) is used for captions, links etcetera.

Head over to It’s Nice That for an interview with designer Lina Forsgren.

Detail, showing all-caps Maple Regular; Or Lemmen Light and Light Italic; and Neue Machina Regular.

A new creative direction and design – by République studio – for Playboy France, the iconic magazine.

Every issue of Playboy France has its own layout and typefaces. This spread and the one below are from issue #7, pairing Big Caslon and Beausite Classic.

Activist 2.0 by Max Rawlins is an investigation into the sociological and political effect of satirical memes. It contains an adaptation of his dissertation and 100 rare Pepes.

MOLD is “a platform about designing the future of food”, that recently completed a successful crowdfunding campaign to launch a printed magazine. The publication is being designed by Eric Hu and Matt Tsang, making promintent use of The Pyte Foundry’s Gyrator as well as Forgotten Shapes’ digitization of Gerstner Programm.

Eric Hu was interviewed about the project by Emily Gosling for AIGA’s Eye On Design blog, and explained some of the thinking behind the type-centric design:

“It’s about eating bugs and eating dirt—the subject matter is strange and we wanted to create a design that was equally as strange. We also wanted to avoid the tropes of the word ‘future.’ A few years ago it was the highly geometric sans serif, all clean slick lines; but when you think ‘future’ now, a lot of designers try to make it all very dark, or use a bunch of evil corporate logos. We wanted to hold a mirror up to the fetishization of food with its emphasis on happiness and tweeness.”

The Eye On Design article only references Gerstner-Programm as “a slick Swiss sans serif”, and it fails to name or link to The Pyte Foundry as the creator of Gyrator, but it continues with more info on the type choices:

Hu explains that he found the type through a process of “looking for the source of twee, whether that’s Americana or Victorian England. If we go past the 20th century, we can go way beyond nostalgia. It’s taking twee to its most logical conclusion—what do you do when you run out of reference points?”

The Kickstarter campaign for the magazine has ended, but you can still order or subscribe from MOLD’s online store.