Paris-based Studio Avenir designed the identity for Brûlerie Saint-Jacques a.k.a. BSJ Coffee in Bagnolet, France. From an article by The Brand Identity:

The decision to lead with utility is unusual for the coffee category. Speciality coffee tends to dress itself in warm browns, hand-drawn marks and analogue craft cues that signal artisanship through softness. BSJ says no to that. The label functions as a form, with the variables a roaster needs to communicate arranged with the structural clarity of a logistics document. “We designed the label in a way that emphasises the expertise of the roastery, drawing on technical layout conventions,” explains Clementine Cornu Thenard, Art Director & Co-founder at Studio Avenir.

Anchoring the system is a modular BSJ monogram that exists in three distinct forms. A bold, condensed wordmark handles primary identification. A hatched, line-filled version reads as a textured, almost printed-on-paper variant that animates labels and tape. A geometric badge mark, set within a soft polygonal outline, behaves like a stamp or seal. Each appears in different contexts. “There are indeed several ways to write BSJ, which allows for a more expressive and flexible identity, while enabling both the old and new lettering styles to coexist,” Clementine notes. “All of these lettering variations also help showcase the research and exploration behind the work.”

“We worked with two very different typefaces: one modular, and a more rounded script style,” Clementine explains. “The client wanted to highlight the modular and adaptable nature of their event offering, while also giving the brand a new identity that feels more institutional and authoritative. We aimed to balance the rigid, angular aspect of the modular lettering with a more rounded typeface that feels accessible and authentic.”

One of the typefaces is Formula. The bold one with horizontal contrast is yet unidentified. Collateral fonts in use include ITC Cheltenham and Crayonette DJR.

Poster series for the 15th edition of the Beyond Tellerrand conference, created in TouchDesigner using a deterministic system so each poster is unique to the speaker’s name together with venue posters.

Raquel Virgínia is a trans woman artist and activist from São Paulo, historian, journalist and also a singer and songwriter. She founded the band As Baías and was nominated twice for a Latin Grammy. In 2021, she created Nhaí, a startup that accelerates innovation in companies and brands based on diversity

Raquel brought us a challenge in 2023 to release her new album Raquel à Venda starting her solo career. Her entire album revolves around contemporary consumer relations. Where the vernacular and material meets the digital. Where the body is put up for sale over and over again, just like casual and romantic relationships. The album is a mockery of sales languages ​​linked to human relationships.

From a design point of view, we understood Raquel’s references and came up with a solution that we call “pay-per-feel”, which mixes signs of capitalism and the collective unconscious related to sales and constant exposure of oneself on the internet, on social media, on adult platforms, etc. To achieve this, we included a wide typographic variety, linked to the hierarchy of Pangram Pangram’s Formula Condensed and Arial Narrow as its supporting typography – purposefully chosen because it is a standard font that anyone can access.

The project applications ranged from the creation of Raquel’s logo and stickers for each song, to the creation of posters, posts on social media, art direction for Raquel’s motion and “consumption” music video, digital invitations, banners, merchandising, album cover, website and more.

The graphic design of the entire visual identity was developed by Eduarda Nieto, with creative direction by Diego Limberti.

Dolly Parton: Behind the Seams celebrates the country music legend’s “passion for fashion” and provides an inside look at her distinctive fashion style. The tome features 450 photographs and includes items from Parton’s private costume archive.

Designed by Annie Marino, the book’s design and typography translates these rhinestones and floral patterns into graphic form. It is primarily set in Commercial Type’s Canela, designed by Miguel Reyes. Ilham Herry’s Caniste and EFCO Songster are beautifully set on the bright pink cover and title page.

And I am thrilled to see Crayonette DJR (my revival of the 1889 typeface Crayonette) used throughout the book as an accent typeface. Its ornate and whimsical design are a perfect fit for the subject matter, and it echoes Parton’s previous use of Crayonette’s older cousin, Crayon, on her 1990 album Home for Christmas.

Many thanks to Dana Chen for alerting me to this use and for taking these photographs.

Poster made as a personal project to commemorate the release of Beyoncé’s album Act II: Cowboy Carter. The design is inspired by Chitlin’ Circuit posters. Printed copies are available from my print store.

Singing to Liberation is about Indian students’ resistance to the wave of nationalism in their country.

Published by Daraja Press, Wakefield, Quebec.

Our friends at Letterform Archive will hold their next Rare Book Sale on December 9, 2023. Typophiles eager to get their hands on some delightful duplicates can drop by on-site in San Francisco or online at the website. Hint, hint: members get early access to the sale.

We’re clearing out a treasure trove of rare duplicates from the collection, from 19th–20th-century type specimens and hard-to-find design books and periodicals, to ephemera and other design collectibles. This is the perfect place to discover something special for your own collection or to snag a few unique holiday gifts, whether you attend the local sale or browse our special online selection from wherever you are.

Elise Carlton’s design for the announcement indulges in a 19th-century aesthetic, and specifically references chromatic wood type like that shown by William H. Page in 1874. The star of the show is HWT Etta. Designed by Lynne Yun and Maxime Gau, it consists of two styles, East and West, and was released in 2021 with the Hamilton Wood Type Foundry. Established in 2012, that’s a joint venture between P22 Type Foundry and the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.

The word “AND” on the right is a so-called catchword. Such decorative whole-word sorts were common in American wood type and are also known as logotypes, or logograms. This specific glyph is included in Miranda Roth’s HWT Catchwords. Other digital fonts with similar vintage catchwords include Brothers, Adobe Wood Type Ornaments, and Catch Words JNL.

The festive setting is crowned by Crayonette DJR, David Jonathan Ross’s digital revival of an italic design with horizontal contrast that was originally dreamt up by Henry Brehmer in 1889.

Addendum: I learned that for the 2023 announcement, Carlton reused her design from the previous year, with new colors.

Studio MPLS designed the logo and packaging for Strange Lands, a (now defunct) distillery that was based in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. The identity uses an elegantly-customized Crayonette DJR for the logo, monogram and perhaps, most importantly, the word “GIN”). Other display text is set vertically in Corfe, and supporting text is set in an all-caps combination of LHF Egyptian and Series A Signage JNL. The identity uses a variety of colors to distinguish the different gin varieties, all set on a label with distinctive stepped corners.

Studio MPLS senior designer Brent Schoepf spoke to The Dieline about the typographic palette:

[Crayonette] DJR all day! Dolly Parton’s album Home for Christmas made us do it. We’re just imitators in this case. All other typography is either from Letter Head Fonts or Jeff Levine, always and forever our default font makers. And a special shoutout to Beasts of England for the embossed type on the side of the bottle, done in ‘Corfe’.

Mint is an indie rock band based in San Francisco, influenced by genres such as dream pop, shoegaze, and garage rock.

I was asked to design this merch for them and I immediately knew Crayonette DJR would be the perfect typeface for them.

Inspiration Information is a typographical installation designed by the multi-disciplinary designer and type artist Raissa Pardini for Ses12naus in Ibiza. Pardini describes the project as follows:

I was invited to Ibiza by curator Linda Rocco and foundation Ses12Naus in February for an art residency. I've never attended an art residency before but I felt at a point of my carrier where everything was too comfortable so I urged to challenge myself by pushing my creativity to places I’ve never pushed it to before. It was awkward and hard at times but our best work comes out of struggle.

Me and another 8 international artists were invited to work on the presence of the island, exploring Ibiza and take inspiration from the frequencies and magnetism the island offers during the winter. I started thinking about the contrast between its presence in the summer – when tourism is booming – and the winter, when the island offers locals unique smells, stunning views and interesting sounds that lived there for thousands of years and will always be present in Ibiza, no matter what happens in the summer.

I spent weeks recording anything I could pick up in Ibiza. By recording the sound that organically came out of the island I produced a track with Diego Torán that invites people to meditate to the real presence of the Ibiza.

Once the track was done, I produced a big wooden box which I painted completely black inside and tested the sound there. I wanted people to feel very connected with the island and really isolated at the same time. Next step was covering the box and I had the idea of making posters out of some of the sound I recorded and promote them as street posters, looking like they should be from dance clubs in Ibiza.

That way I managed to promote the listening space as a club, tricking tourists and music lovers to come and enjoy the real presence of Ibiza.

I present you (proudly!) my first installation which it was launched in Ibiza through an exhibition on the 6th of March, 2022. This is the first time I combined music and art in the same art piece. I guess I needed to do both separately for a while without rushing.

Inspired by the island and its (real) sound. Also inspired by Futurism, Russolo and ambient artists like John Cage.

Wood, paper, ink, glue, sound, 237×126 cm. The fonts in use include Brass, Sea weed (or probably its digital incarnation named Polly), Euphoria, Crayonette DJR, and a slightly modified Redaction 70 Italic. The typeface made of dots is yet unidentified. [edit: it’s ARK-ES, see comments.]

With a passionate and ever-growing community of Broccoli readers, the publication’s team created a 3-day festival in June 2019 for cannabis lovers to come together, network, inspire, and simply feel connected beyond the printed pages and digital screens.

For more, read Ella Riley-Adams’s piece in Vogue covering the event: “At Portland’s ‘Weed Prom,’ Women Gathered to Celebrate and Strategize”

The text is set in Crayonette DJR and a yet unidentified sans (Mériva and Maple are similar). [edit: Giuseppe identified it as A2 Grot10.]

Promo graphics for Spring Break, a sketch comedy production presented by Just Jackie, to be shown at Coalition Theater in April 2020 (but cancelled due to Covid-19).

Designer Eric Gordon (The Hot Brain) used Crayonette DJR in all caps, for a decidedly vernal flair. The letterforms of DJR’s revival of the swashy Victorian italic with horizontal contrast – as well as those of the accompanying plain gothic caps from Benton Sans Compressed Bold – were processed to give them a roughened, vintage look.

Screen-printed poster for Highgate Continental’s annual Record Store Day party in Perth, Western Australia. The main information uses all caps Neue Haas Grotesk, supported by William Caslon Text. “2019” uses Crayonette DJR.