When Rafiq Hardi Kermanj, founder of the Communist Party of Kurdistan, is forced to flee Tehran for London with his family, they suffer the shame of penury and migration layered on Kurdish statelessness. Agri Ismail's electrifying debut novel follows the lives of Rafiq’s three children and their increasingly desperate relationship to money.

The Swedish edition of Agri Ismaïl’s novel was published by Albert Bonniers Förlag in 2024.

Full brand identity, art direction, packaging design and website for the initial launch of Herbar by Élise Rigollet. The logotype is a custom design.

Herbar is a new skincare brand focusing on the superpowers of adaptogenic mushrooms, herbs and plants. Herbar was launched by Catarina Oliveira and Rui Liu in 2022.

Web developer: APN Works
Logotype assist: Manuel Marsoudet
Photographer: Nuno Vieira, Cristiana Morais
CGI artist: Laura Le Gal
Nails: Caliente Nails

The Four Pillars (2022) showcases the work of photographer Eli Durst. Designed by Lewis Chaplin, the flexi-bound faux-leather hardcover utilises the swashes from WT Kormelink Italic. The interior uses a mix of both Roman and Italic. From Loose Joints Publishing:

The Four Pillars grew out of a relationship with a faith-based self-help group in Newtown, Connecticut, that Durst photographed over several years. Despite their ostensibly comfortable lives, these affluent suburbanites felt unfulfilled and directionless. They met weekly in church basements to discuss spiritual and secular strategies to find meaning and purpose, and to deconstruct the markers of success, progress and identity within middle-class American society.

144pp, 235×270 mm, 70 tritone plates, with a prose piece by Rick Moody

Dreams is a lifestyle store in Los Angeles’ Atwater Village created by creative entrepreneur Monica Navarro and spatial designer Adi Goodrich of Sing-Sing. Studio Elana Schlenker and Élise Rigollet took care of the branding

The identity is anchored by a strong logotype with softly blurred edges used in concert with a toolkit of eclectic type (an elegant serif, glitchy pixelated font, and bubbly display text) and surreal illustrations by Julia Dufossé that add texture and intrigue to the brand’s communications.

The main fonts in use shown in this post are Moore, WT Kormelink and Lo-Res 15, supported by Tiny. The website uses Twentieth Century, and on social media, Dreams makes recurring use of Swear, Snell Roundhand, Vivaldi, among other fonts (not pictured here).

Shop photography by Ye Rin Mok, Adi Goodrich, Dreams.

The exhibition Souffler de son souffle (“blowing with your breath”, Nov. 2021 – Apr. 2022) gathered 26 artists from different generations and artistic movements at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles (FVVGA). The exhibition takes a transhistoric route as it covers all the spaces within the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles.

To show the diversity of the non-linear curatorial approach, we worked on a hybrid catalogue with different papers, colors and textures. The publication is divided in five different parts and includes a variety of texts. We have adapted the layout grid to the nature of each text, while separating each category with a blue title page.

We worked with two complementary fonts: TWK Everett, designed by Nolan Paparelli, and WT Kormelink, designed by Jacob Wise. We played with these two fonts, mainly using Kormelink for the first part of the catalogue, and Everett for the appendices. We've also personalized the word ”souffle” (“breath”) throughout the publication: the first f bends over the second f as if a breath makes it change.

We used different textured papers for the cover as well as to separate the different parts of the publication. We played with the architecture of the catalogue itself. The cover has a cut flap to reveal the word “Souffler”, and plays between two papers of different thicknesses and colors. Fedrigoni's Jade paper resembles wind patterns and makes the link with some patterns used by Vincent van Gogh. The binding with blue thread is apparent and shows the various booklets of the catalogue.

The paper for the main part of the publication is coated, specially chosen for photoengraving. Appendices use thinner, glossy paper in an information and magazine register.

On Transform Constantin John creates a universe full of organic melodies, harsh digital breaks and fractal rhythms. The album expands into various narrative threads that get distorted and warped, and somehow deconstructs both linear music systems and civilization in eleven tracks. What’s left is an eerie but sometimes hauntingly optimistic vision of possibilities—not completely sure if this vision includes human beings.

For this special piece of music 3D artist Felix Neumann created a fragmentary 3D experience video and visuals for the album cover that were used by Philipp Dittmar to create the packaging of the vinyl. The graphic design combines the classic vibes of GT America in a back cover text layout with the more playful and organic styles of WT Kormelink. Together with the digital, gitchy images, the typography mirrors both the dark conceptual and the more narrative and organic side of the music.

Chesstempt is a project aimed to promote the game of chess and make it more accessible through communication and pedagogic content. It was made for my bachelor thesis at LISAA Strasbourg.

The typeface WT Kormelink is used for the main content and for the lowercase logo. I wanted to use a serif typeface to recall the prestige of the chess game and contrast it with these abstract piece shapes. Moreover, this typeface have this beautiful st ligature which correspond perfectly with the idea of connecting "chess" and "attempt". It’s supported by IBM Plex Sans for the website and for all the printed documents to learn the game.

The game of chess knew a golden age during the Cold War when it was considered as a measure of intelligence between the two blocs. At the end of this period and with the arrival of computers, the popularity of the game slowly declined until chess was considered as a game difficult to access, meaningless and reserved for intellectuals. Yet this is a vision that contradicts the very essence of the game, which advocates values of equality and has benefits that are often overlooked.

Mockup of the posters presented in the public space

Mockup of the website (chesstempt.com hasn’t launched yet)

BIG is an art biennale highlighting Geneva’s local and independent art scene. The event’s aim is to federate and engage with diverse art forms, in a democratic and horizontal approach, outside the market of art galleries or national institutions.

In 2021, Geneva’s 4th art biennale becomes uncancellable, planning every possible way so that, no matter the circumstances, it can transform, adapt, and exist. This year’s biennale is therefore called Biennale Inannulable des espaces d’art de Genève(BIG) (“Geneva’s uncancellable art Biennale(BIG)”).

The logo is set in Tomato Grotesk (Andrea Biggio), with WT Kormelink Italic (Jacob Wise) used for the date. The three letters “BIG” constitute the main element. It is followed by the tagline of the festival “4e Biennale Inannulable des espaces d’art de Genève”. Repeating and transforming the letter n, we highlighted the word inannulable (“uncancellable”). This play became the unifying thread of the communication.

The poster uses different layers. First, the orange graduated background is grained and faded, reminding of a sunset but also of sand. On top, the font is in cyan, to contrast with the background. In between, we can find “4e Biennale des espaces d’art de Genève”, present but almost wiped out. Resisting its removal, it is “uncancellable”.

The event happened at l’île Rousseau, central to Geneva’s city. Ironically echoing our times, the island was once used to quarantine imported goods from countries in high risks of infections. The space was imagined and built by the architecture collective Tarex.
The year’s theme was “the roof”, reflecting on the idea of inhabiting a space together, in a time of global pandemic. 52 artists and collectives each took over the space for 24h, over the course a month. We completed the sign design with banners, flags and tarps.

The website (www.bigbiennale.ch) was programmed by Fabien Duperrex. The homepage shows the three letters “BIG” and can be erased with the cursor, revealing the word “inannulable”.