Promotional poster for Habla de Mí en Presente concert at Dabadaba, the Donostia / San Sebastián club, combining Eurostile Extended with Vasca and Daubenton. The fishy arrows are taken from Bluu Suuperstar.

Bleed Out front cover

Bleed Out is the eighth studio album by Dutch metal band Within Temptation, released on 20 October 2023. A tour of the same name will start in 2024, with shows in Latin America and Europe. From Wikipedia:

The album marks the first time the band opted for releasing a full record without the support of a major record label. Musically, the record incorporates elements from symphonic metal, gothic metal, metalcore, and djent. Lyrically, the band approached themes related to freedom. They addressed subjects such as war, oppression, women’s rights, religion, bullying, and inner-struggles.

The album and the two latest singles were designed by Frank Burghout of Voutloos (and formerly of M-Design Wormerveer), with artwork by Anato Finnstark and photography by Tim Tronckoe.

Burghout combined two interesting typefaces. The one used for the band name is called Narwa. This “robust medieval-modernist display type” was drawn by Lewis McGuffie of East of Rome, inspired by “a combination of Rudolf Koch style lettering, some old book covers and a masthead from a printed tour guide of Narva, Estonia.” It caught my eye when McGuffie made a beta version available in January 2022 via Future Fonts. Narwa then already spanned eight weights and also came as variable font. The typeface family was finalized in October 2023, now with support for extended Latin and Cyrillic. Make sure to read Identifont’s latest blog post: it includes an interview in which the designer provides some insight into the process. McGuffie reveals that he started with the bold uppercase characters, as he’s found that “graphic designers often just use all-caps in the designs”. Case in point: Narwa is here used in all caps, too, featuring its whimsical W with the vertical middle part, the characteristic asymmetrical A and M, and the round uncial E.

The low-contrast sans used for the titles – also in capitals – is worth a closer look, too. It’s English Egyptian, a digital interpretation of William Caslon’s Two Lines English Egyptian of 1816, which arguably is the first sans-serif printing type to be sold commercially. Conceived by Adrien Vasquez and John Morgan, it was released by Abyme in 2017. Just last week, Abyme published a slightly revised and newly illustrated version of “Caslon’s Egyptian: the first sanserif type” by James Mosley. This essay was first printed by I.M. Imprimit in a pamphlet produced for a visit by members of the Arbeitskreis Druckgeschichte in 1988.

In addition to Narwa and English Egyptian, the tour posters and graphics use Daubenton. I don’t know if these were designed by Burghout as well. Daubenton is a caps-only design by Olivier Dolbeau, reviving the engraved letters seen of the façade of the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution of Paris’s Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

[More info on Discogs]

Bleed Out limited edition box set

Bleed Out album poster flag

Bleed Out front cover with smoke vinyl edition

Bleed Out 2024 tour graphic

Bleed Out 2024 tour poster with dates for the European leg

Bleed Out back cover of the CD release

“Ritual” single cover

“Bleed Out” single cover

Band T-shirt

Encyclies – the French word for the concentric circles formed on the surface when an object falls into the water – is a mémoire by Olivier Petitprez, made at the École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine (ÉSAL) during the course “Arts et langages graphiques”. This work is divided into four parts; one about circles, one about cycles, one about some revived Labours of Hercules, and one attempt to turn text into a landscape.

The work of Petitprez is a questioning about the place of mankind in time and space. He doesn’t talk a lot about the place of the mankind in the world amongst the other species. It’s the typography that plays this role. In fact, he chooses two typefaces related to nature. Daubenton is used for the titles. Its name is borrowed from Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton, the first director of the French National Museum of Natural History. This font, linked to natural history, has this chiseled characterstic that gives it noble simplicity and calm grandeur, which pairs well with the timeless myths of Hercules. The second font is Faune by Alice Savoie which is inpired by the shapes of animals. In the words of Mrs Savoie: “Although natural history has inspired a lot of literature, poetry and painting, its influence on typography stays very narrow.”

This choice of fonts linked to the animal kingdom could be understood through a reference that Petitprez makes in his memoir. He talks about Herakles by Werner Herzog, a film that shows the failure of man in his goal of mastering nature and the destruction that results from his actions. Maybe by this choice, Petitprez wants to underline the fact that man is a part of animality.

The other thing that the two chosen fonts have in common is the roundness of the letter shapes. For example, the bowl of R in Daubenton is a real circle, and Faune, especially in its italics, eschews the straight line. Therefore, we could say that the typefaces chosen by Petitprez follow the title and the theme of his mémoire, the shape of the circle follows the idea of the cycle.

At Anecdote, we’re making fragrance a conversation piece. Inspired by personal recollections and cultural trends, each candle is an everyday luxury designed to remind us of stories worth sharing. — Anecdote candles

Anecdote Candles are hand-poured in California using all-natural ingredients with no additives, dyes, or preservatives. The brand’s mission is to create meaning conversations around fragrances that remind people of very specific memories. They approached Nice People with an existing brand, but a need to elevate the design and add personality. Each fragrance already came with a playful anecdote or sentimental story listed on their site.

Nice People's solution was to bring these website descriptions onto the labels to give them the personality they needed. The hierarchy of these lines, set in Daubenton (Velvetyne Type Foundry), now gives weight to the name of the brand. With subtle warm tones, nuanced type, and an organized design, everything fell into place. The labels are letterpressed to add a tactile nature to the product that's best experienced in-person. It's too bad these fragrances can't be shared digitally because their corresponding anecdotes are spot on. The brand logo is based on Droulers (Bureau Brut), and all smaller text on the website uses Crimson Text (Sebastian Kosch).

Designed by Tyler Deeb (Misc. Goods Co.) with assistance and art direction by Jacob Boyles.

The goal was to use a mono weight line illustration to create a complex image detailing the glory, timelessness, yet real-ness of God. It is supposed to feel like heaven and earth are meeting.

Daubenton was the perfect pairing for this project. The way it fits in with the project as a whole felt like custom typography and like it was made for this project.

Elevation Worship is the worship ministry of Elevation Church, a multisite church based in Charlotte, NC, led by Pastor Steven Furtick. Their new album, Hallelujah Here Below, released in September of 2018 and has been nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Album of the Year at the 61st Grammy Awards being held in February of 2019.

Album description:

An altar of broken stones: it’s what God once asked for from His people (Exodus 20:25). Not perfection, not beauty––but brokenness. God didn’t create us to be perfect; He created us to worship Him in our imperfection. He already knows who you are. He was with you in your darkest valley, He was with you in your weakest moment, and He is with you now. Give Him your hallelujah. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below.