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.

Chicano Batman is an American band formed in 2008, playing psychedelic soul and rock. They released their fifth album Notebook Fantasy in 2024.

The visuals for the accompanying tour feature two typefaces by French designers: Basteleur by Keussel, an open-source release from Velvetyne, as well as Nostra Sett by Lucas Descroix, available from Plain Form.

Nostra Sett was also used for the title cards in the music video for “Fly”, one of the album’s singles. Note the the squeezed version announcing special guests on the tour posters!

After a first collaboration in 2020, where Nostra Sett was used in the music video, Belgian producer Le Motel and British rapper Magugu released a 4-song EP in February 2023. The artwork was designed by Le Motel, like most things coming out of his own music label Maloca Records, and uses — you've guessed it — Nostra Sett, this time in a slightly compressed version, making the letters a bit closer to being squares. Being monospaced, it plays nicely with the similarities between the two words in the title, “Kindness Weakness”.

As is often the case on Maloca Records, the artwork is a full-page picture, covered on the left with a type-only strip, showing all caps Obviously for supporting text. The Maloca logotype uses Eckmannpsych with an alternate M and what appears to be an enlarged lowercase C.

From Kaide:

KAIDE is a creative studio dedicated to transforming the Finnish societal communications space towards a more imaginative version of itself. We specialize in sound branding, motion graphics and commercial videography productions. Our clients include some of the most prominent societally relevant actors in Finland, including NGO's, private companies and municipalities.

Their website, showcasing a variety of work, from promotional videos to music and podcasts, uses Lay Grotesk throughout. The sans-serif is paired with both contrasting styles of Nostra (Sett and Stream), mostly used as singular characters (including emojis). Note the unusual hover effect on the menu, that changes discreet Lay Grotesk into chunky Nostra Sett!

Ethical Colour brand identity

Ethical Colour is the latest annual research project by London-based CMF design studio Colour of Saying, exploring and sharing actionable resources aimed at businesses and design professionals who want to step up and address their contribution by making healthy colour decisions. Ethical Colour looks at the circular economy through the lens of colour and shows us how good colour choices can help us restore ecological balance. The first release is a report into climate-positive colour sources and processes across the full lifecycle of a product: “planetary impact is now a design choice and an ethical one”.

Part of the report discusses how responsible choices can be mapped to circular frameworks; having a circular logo felt like a natural choice. Using various typefaces helps to emphasise Ethical Colour’s multifaceted nature. Eight characters (E T C A O L U R) are set in Nostra Stream and Nostra Sett as a reference to eight different points of view and approaches. The typographic styling throughout the report and printed collateral continued this approach – juxtaposing bold typefaces – Nostra Sett and Freight Big – with the more delicate Nostra Stream and Neue Haas Grotesk.

Colour of Saying: Laura Perryman (art director, editor), Alice Burnhope and Emilie Hartford (research)
Graphic design: Laura Jane Boast, Conscious Made
Editor: Sarah Conway, Stories of Design
Photography: Sarah Hibbert
Contributors: Jesse Adler, Colorifix, Phoebe Lewis, Ruth Lloyd, Hannah Elisabeth Jones, Kirstie van Noort, Jess Redgrave, Slow Painting Studio, Studio Sarmite
Generous Sponsors: G . F Smith, R K Burt, Living Ink Technologies
Printing: WithPrint

The report can be purchased from Colour of Saying.

Ethical Colour Report

Ethical Colour Report

Colour Story Exhibition Posters, Colour Sample and Envelope

Colour Story Exhibition Posters

Ethical Colour Exhibition Display

Colour Story Exhibition Posters, Circularity Model

The recent redesign of designer Scott Kellum's personal website goes full monospaced, combining both styles of Nostra (Sett and Stream) with Rüdiger's unmistakable Arnold.
The typography plays a particularly central role in the dedicated photography page, where its generous size, together with the reduced palette of black, white and red(s), complements Kellum's sensible and often atmospheric pictures.

This year’s collections of streetwear brand Goodbois is divided in two designs. The first we introduce is named “Flowerpack”, with a colorful and vintage flower design that is inspired by Finnish brand Marimekko. It resembles vulnerability with the use of flower designs and that even the smallest step can change things in our world. The typeface chosen for the attached slogan is the Italic style from Caxton, which was used before in releases of FW2020.

Included as well in the SS21 Drop of Goodbois the graphic tee and more sporty part of this season, called “World Care”, which comes in green (healthy planet) and purple (global warming planet).

It combines the two styles of the Nostra typeface family. Nostra Stream represents the signature of the world. The bold Nostra Sett is used for the statements of the brand Goodbois over their graphic tees from recent collections. World Care is a big topic for Goodbois who display a great opinion with an urban touch on their shirts.

Photography by Mara Fischer.

“Shaolin” is a single from Belgian producer Le Motel's latest album Pots & Pans, featuring rapper Magugu. The music video was directed by Nicolas Torres Correia and shot at the Shaolin Temple Europe, in Germany.

The title of the song is set in all-caps Nostra Sett, paired with Monument Extended for the credits. The type treatment was designed by Le Motel himself, who also happens to be taking care of everything visual for his own recently-created record label Maloca.

End credits

Square compositions for social media posts

Pure & Naive is a wine bar and bistro, located in Kiev, Ukraine.

For its identity, it uses Steinbeck (The Temporary State) for all texts, paired with several display typefaces from Tomorrow’s collection: Nostra (in both Sett and Stream) and Tomasa.

Single cover and two unused proposals for “Ei Voi Unohtaa” by Finnish artist Lil Yayo from Helsinki on behalf Universal Music Finland. The song title translates to: “I can't be forgotten” which in this case describes him as the wheel where his heart is stuck and filled with poison. A wheel refers to a getaway from all these problems and feelings, while poisoned.

The title in the final version was written in the brush type Indelible by Youssef Habchi. The artist’s name is set in a sharp and creepy font called Sinistre from French artist Lazy Dog aka Jules Durand. The alternative covers show the same font in different graded chrome styles.

These 3D elements were created by another French designer named Louis Crevier, who recently worked with Julian Schröpel as well on another single cover for German rap artist Payy. Seems like we will see more of those two collaborating on single covers for the future.

Another one was made with Lucas Descroix’s Nostra Sett for the first part and for the second line the swing-ish style of Nostra Stream.

In the wake of the USPS potentially going bankrupt and subsequently affecting the 2020 Presidential Elections, I decided to buy stamps and send postcards to friends and family. Almost 300 people shared their addresses with me on Instagram (way more than I had anticipated) so I decided to create my own set of nine postcards.

Designed during one late night after work, printed by Moo on an impressively strong and durable paper with silky, soft touch, matte coating finish on both sides; and using nine completely different and unique typefaces, the set has resulted in an elevated but clean design. With the core message of letting you, and the world know, that while we are going through difficult times at the moment, it will be okay in the end. And it is equally fair to not be okay at this time. You do you.

“Okay”, set in Miniature Display, Druk Condensed, Opposit, and Migra, latter with a mix of roman and italic glyphs.

“OK”, set in Parabole Display, Pilowlava, Kernit, Hatton and Nostra Sett.

Fictional poster for the 1969 Frank Zappa album Hot Rats / Peaches at Regalia. Frank Zappa was an artist of many languages when composing music, I wanted to represent that harmony of languages coexisting in the same place, beings living in equity.

Tatequieto Fest is a digital festival of music, comedy and illustration, broadcast live via Instagram “from the middle of the world”. This poster was designed to promote the closing performance on April 5 by Ecuadorian-Lithuanian DJ and producer Riobamba. The typography pairs the two contrasting styles of Nostra, Sett and Stream.

Nepomuk is a bar in Leipzig, Germany, created by designer and author Lukas Adolphi.

For their identity they use both styles of Nostra (Sett & Stream) in very simple black and white layouts, with Nostra Sett’s uppercase N as their logo.

Coasters

Menu

Stickers

Gooper Bold Italic (Kyle Benson / Very Cool Studio)

Oi Polloi is a "shop selling classic and contemporary menswear, established in 2002."

Their online communication, handled by Manchester-based graphic designer Stuart Fear, makes prolific use of many (mostly recent) display typefaces, often setting a brand's name in playful ways on pastel-colored backgrounds — and with Kyle Benson's Gooper as the most recurrent guest.

Nostra Sett (Lucas Descroix)

Eckmannpsych (James Edmondson / OH no Type Co.)

Blenny (Spike Spondike / Dalton Maag)

Narly (Zuzana Licko / Emigre)

Nostra Stream (Lucas Descroix)

Standard 80 (Benoît Bodhuin / bb-bureau)

Beastly (James Edmondson / OH no Type Co.)

Skia Black (Matthew Carter)

ZigZag in its lesser-known non-rounded form (Benoît Bodhuin / bb-bureau)

Block Heavy (Hermann Hoffman / Berthold)

Culposa is a new brand of authentic pulque from the Mexican countryside. We combined bold typography – Nostra Sett and Ginto Nord – with a simple illustrated background, in order to create a label with more personality.

Kommune/Commune is a double exhibition organised in early 2019 by the École nationale supérieure d’art de Nancy (ENSA Nancy) and the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar (HBKSaar). The first part took place in Nancy at the NaMiMa gallery, where the students from Saarbrücken exhibited their work.

For the identity, HBKsaar students Chiara and Eric Schwarz chose Nostra Sett (making good use of its icons) and Dattilo DJR Banner Extra Light, a slab serif companion to Forma DJR, made available a few months before through the Font of the Month Club.

The printed publication uses Cooper Hewitt for longer texts.

For the past few years, the moody experiments of Turin, Italy-based producer Yves Tumor have evolved rapidly and plummeted deep into uncharted territory. – Tone Madison

Concert poster for Yves Tumor at the Play Circle in Madison. Serpents are a common theme in his music. I used Nostra Stream with its snake-like qualities, overlapping the bolder Nostra Sett underneath. This contrasting type is meant to mimic the main serpent compositional element of the poster. Risograph printed by Bad Press.

From Studio Elena Schlenker's website:

This portfolio of thesis work by the 2018 graduates of Image Text Ithaca’s low residency MFA features eight booklets housed in a fabric-wrapped case with flaps and secured with a single X-band. The case interior is printed with an introduction by Emma Kemp, with endnotes housed on the inside spine. Each booklet spotlights the work of a single student, allowing them to reprint additional standalone versions as needed.

Published by Image Text Ithaca
Printed by Conveyor
Cover screenprinted by Standard Art Supply
Booklets designed with Martha Ormiston

For our moving to Europe Garage Sale, Frank and myself set to do a different flyer every day of the leading week of the grand event. We would post these digital flyers in our Instagram Stories. We ended up not following through and did only four flyers.

We did the first one together, the second and third one are from me and the last one is from Frank.

For the first one, we used Nostra because it had just come out in Future Fonts and it’s awesome!

The second one I decided to play with as many typefaces as possible from the Pyte Foundry.

The third one is an ode to the female type designers present in Future Fonts.

The fourth one is an accurate description through the display of emojis of everything that we had for sale. :)

Women type designers at Future Fonts, starring from top to bottom: Inga Plönnig’s Messer Condensed; Pauline Fourest with Giboula, Sun Helen Isdahl Kalvenes with Ricochet, and Daria Petrova's Zangezi.

Apple Color Emoji and Daria Petrova's Zangezi.