Material Meanings was an exhibition shown at the Art Institute of Chicago from February 22 to July 5, 2020. The accompanying catalog, edited by Matthew S. Witkovsky, is distributed by Yale University Press:

This book features 31 objects from Constance R. Caplan’s noted collection of 20th- and 21st-century art, including works in a variety of media by artists such as Hans Arp, Lydia Benglis, Liz Deschens, Claes Oldenberg, and Cy Twombly. Rather than specialize in one medium, artist, or movement, Caplan has instead assembled paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures, and examples of decorative art that include voices from both the school and the museum of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yve-Alain Bois provides a historical overview of the collection's genesis, with a particular focus on the dialogue among works from different artistic disciplines.

The book was designed and typeset by Emma Cole, pairing Granville (Jean-Baptiste Levée) and Univers (Adrian Frutiger). The cover shows a detail from Louise Bourgeois’s Observer (1947–1949) and features silver foil stamping.

Perfect Days is the latest film by Wim Wenders. Based on a script written by Wenders together with Takuma Takasaki, the Japanese-German co-production combines four short stories and stars Kōji Yakusho in the role of a janitor.

Match Factory, who handles the world sales, describes the film as follows:

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

The film premiered on 25 May at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d’Or and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Actor Award for Kōji Yakusho. It was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. Perfect Days will hit theaters in Germany and Japan later this month.

Shown here is the typography for the trailer by US distributor NEON. It uses a single typeface, the bold weight of Granville, exclusively in capitals. Designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée and available from Production Type, this modulated sans is a reinterpretation of the thick-thin style that was a mainstay of signs and posters, as well as advertising text during the mid 20th century. It is built with a rational construction like the early French Moderns, yet without a tie to any specific period or model.

In the various text cards, Granville’s letterforms can be seen in interplay with the images: street lanterns were isolated so that they appear in front of the type. The praise from Next Best Picture follows the camera panning as if the text was affixed to the trees. Hirayama and Niko (played by Arisa Nakano) ride their bikes between two lines of text. A van crosses the scene, momentarily obscuring the blurb’s sender. Such spatial illusions with a back and forth between foreground and background are common in static designs (see the “flat depth” tag here on Fonts In Use), but feel still quite fresh in moving images.

Un été aux Coteaux is a program featuring summer activities for the inhabitants of the Coteaux neighborhood in Mulhouse, France.

The booklet for the 2021 edition was designed by me, Yann Gall, using the typefaces Savate (designed by Max Esnée of Collectif We.ch and distributed by Velvetyne) and Granville (designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée and distributed by Production Type). See also the booklet for the previous edition featuring the same typeface combination.

Un été aux Coteaux is a program featuring summer activities for the inhabitants of the Coteaux neighborhood in Mulhouse, France.

The booklet for the 2020 edition was designed by me, Yann Gall, using the typefaces Savate (designed by Max Esnée of Collectif We.ch and distributed by Velvetyne) and Granville (designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée and distributed by Production Type). See also the booklet for the subsequent edition featuring the same typeface combination.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place in April 1917 near Arras, northern France. During this offensive, four Canadian divisions and one from the United Kingdom managed to beat the German army and to take control of a ridge of hills of strategic importance. It was not the most important battle in the history of World War I, but for sure in the national conscience of Canada.

The success of the Canadian forces helped shaping international recognition for Canada as an entity independent of the United Kingdom. In fact, the Battle of Vimy Ridge became a milestone in the country’s evolution from a British dominion to a sovereign nation state. After the war, France expressed her gratitude by donating Canada a vast site on the ridge, in order to build there what is known today as the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. It is dedicated to those soldiers that never found a proper grave.

Ahead of the centennial ceremonies in 2017, the memorial was expanded by a visitor education center, which is the project featured in this post. It is a pavilion-like structure marked by a large window row facing the trenches of the former battlefield. The inward walls provide the surface for the exhibition design, conceived of by CL Design from Paris.

Apart from the exquiste exhibition furniture, the hall’s eyecatcher is a huge colorized photograph of Canadian soldiers on one side and a typographic wall on the other side, expressing the oath “We will remember” in English, French, and German. These three languages can be found throughout the entire exhibition. The typeface used for these large-scale applications is Granville by Production Type.

Granville is a sans-serif design, not monolinear but with a marked stroke contrast. This way it has a certain elegance and connection to the epigraphic tradition in all-caps use, a point stressed by the graphic designers. On the other hand it has references to French modernist type designs of the 1920s which make it fit well with the Vimy Memorial site.

Granville’s italics are used for an anti-war quote, shown in three languages.

Imagine it’s a hot summer night and all you have at hand is tab water. The two things to soothe you are thoughts of the Scottish weather and the sparkling refreshment one can find in French all-caps typesetting.

La Maison du Whisky is not just another spirits vendor, it is the French pioneer with regards to importing those liquors this beautiful country does not produce itself. It all started in the mid 1950s with single malt whisky from Scotland and meanwhile turned into an empire spanning the globe. Inside France LMDW distributes to bars, restaurants, and liquor stores. Retailing is realized through four points of sale in Paris and the website that you can see here.

What is so French about its design is the extensive use of all-caps typesetting, very much aligned with the national tradition. What makes it delightful and elegant is the wide letterspacing — that simple trick so little understood in many other countries.

The website uses three distinct typefaces. The monolinear sans-serif is Futura, here ParaType’s digital revival, and represented by the Book and Medium cuts. As much of modernist inspiration is Acier, the display type used for the rum selection. Originally designed as a dual-color typeface by Cassandre and released in 1930 by Deberny & Peignot, it was digitally revived by Production Type’s Jean-Baptiste Levée in 2010.

The third typeface, the one most of the headlines are set in, is Granville, Light and Regular, equally designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée and released by Production Type in 2015. Granville is a grotesque with notable stroke contrast, rational but not constructivist, thus referring to an earlier stage of the sans-serif category. Typeset in all caps with airy spacing, it conveys style and joie de vivre.

Tchin-tchin !

Acier in use for the page with LMDW’s rum selection

Showing a selection of artworks dear to writer Laurent Gounelle, L’art vous le rend bien is a fine book published by Calmann-Lévy in association with the RMN (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, France).

Aurélien Farina, founder of graphic design studio Paper! Tiger! chose to use the typeface Granville from Production Type, to lend a quirky touch to this mainstream book. It displays a Peignot-like feeling related to mid-twentieth century typefaces, but its balanced contrast adds a modern touch. It subtly gives presence to text, without grasping the attention from the works of art. While the overall design of the book is simple and elegant, the typography reveals a real sophistication with the use of Granville’s ligatures. The titles set in caps are also part of this feeling, showing some reminiscences of Art Deco. Granville is paired with GT Walsheim by Grilli Type.

Dala Moa (Commercial Type) and Granville (Production Type) were paired for the website of Swedish visual artist and illustrator Linnéa Andersson.

Granville comes with a full set of circled digits, in positive and negative variants, which can be accessed via the OpenType stylistic sets 3 and 4. Conventionally used for cross references, map markers, and other numbered lists, they were here repurposed as stylistic device for the year dates.

On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny, France presents a retrospective of Ker Xavier-Roussel (1867–1944), a lesser known member of Les Nabis, and one of the most original artists of the post-impressionist generation. Jardin Privé, Jardin Rêvé (“Private Garden, Dream Garden”) is the first major retrospective devoted to the painter in several decades.

The exhibition catalog uses Granville throughout. The modulated sans serif by Production Type appears in all caps for titles: stacked and staggered on the cover, and center-aligned for chapter headings. Body copy is set in ragged-right columns using Granville Bold, with catalog numbers distinguished by a lighter weight. Edited by Mathias Chivot, the catalog was published by Gallimard.

This label was designed by Étienne Pouvreau for the new sparkling grape juice from Domaine des Claires “Bulles de Raisin”, their first non-alcoholic beverage aimed to Cognac cocktails’ enthusiastics, teetotalers and kids.

The name is set in all lowercase Granville put on an angle while others informations are displayed with Stratos ranging from Light to Thin. Various yellow circles echo sparkling bubbles.

New mens’ edition of leading fashion magazine Grazia debuted with a florilege of Production Type’s finest. Art director Adrien Pelletier combined Trianon for elegant titles and pull quotes, Granville for opening pages and subtle details, and the full collection of Gemeli for complex combinations (Gemeli, the foundry's most accessible sans serif; Gemeli Micro, with prominent inktraps; and Gemeli Mono, the fixed-width sibling). The main text is set in a more classical American Garamond.

After the 2015 edition, Maison Solide pursued its work with Changer la mode pour le climat in 2016. The second edition happened in Marrakech during COP 22.

The studio chose Adobe Arabic as an Arabic companion to Granville.

For photographer Virginie Garnier’s identity, Content Design Lab created a folded portfolio which can be transformed into a poster. Playful messages and typographical compositions are composed with all-caps Granville, on top and behind images. Pieces of information like website, email and phone number are on the sides of the format and set in GT Haptik.

Business cards & envelopes are set in Monotype Baskerville printed in hot foil.

For the event Changer la mode pour le climat happening during COP 21 in Paris, Maison Solide built a strong identity with vivid tones of blue, red and deep black. The classy Granville typeface completed the job.

Musée d’Orsay, one of Paris' most iconic museums, commissioned Brice Tourneux for the design of the Charles Gleyre exhibition catalog that it co-edited with Hazan publishing. Brice Tourneux used the Granville family for the entire catalogue.

Fun Toilet Facts is a series of diagrams and was contributed to Bureau Stabil’s toilet-themed fanzine “Klolektüre” (toilet read). The entry uses (then newly released) Granville, a modulated sans by Production Type. The crescent moon in Average loudness of toilet flush is a Webdings glyph.

Bureau Stabil published the fanzine to support WiWo e.V.’s “Mpigi & Tiiti School Project”, a local fundraising event. WiWo is a Saarbrücken-based charity group of like-minded friends with diverse projects. Back then, they were supporting an Ugandan elementary school with plans and help for new toilet facilities.