In 2011, students of ESAL Metz started within a workshop with Argentinian type designer Alejandro Lo Celso and their teacher Jérôme Knebusch a specific design for their school. Looking for a bookish typeface tending to modern forms, the students found interesting references in the work of Baskerville and Didot, precisely: exactly inbetween. The type grew during the following years, each time in intensive workshop sessions, to a complete type family named Messine, covering text, display, poster, italic, bold, sans and serif versions. Today, Messine is the official and exclusive typeface of the school, used all over its documents.
Messine, workshop programme, custom typeface, w/ PampaType, ESAL Metz, 2011-2019.
Bilingual (French, German) supplement to Pangramme: learning type catalogue, published by ESAL Metz, published at the occasion of the traveling exhibition at Biennale de design graphique Chaumont and Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig in 2017 and 2018. Texts by Andrea Tinnes, Thomas Huot-Marchand, Sébastien Morlighem and Jérôme Knebusch. 15x26 cm, 16 pages pamphlet. Free PDF downloads (links below). More information about the exhibtion here.
Pangramme: learning type design, ESAL Metz, Biennale de design graphique Chaumont, Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig, 2017-2018.
The remarkable edition of Das Blumenbuch [The Flower Book] was published several times between 1929 and 1942, from small pocket book editions to precious volumes and portfolios, involving many collaborators, printers and publishers like Mainzer Presse, Ernst-Ludwig-Presse in Darmstadt and Insel-Verlag, Leipzig. Rudolf Koch, explains in a letter that he ‘collected [flowers] at random and without any particular aim. I ketched only the ones which grew in and around Offenbach … This collection is intended to give people a taste of summer while it is winter.’ One member of Koch’s ‘Werkstatt’, the young Fritz Kredel, engraved most of the 250 drawings in pear wood. Online lecture given at ANRT Nancy. With rare and unpublished material from the Klingspor Archives. Courtesy Klingspor Museum, Offenbach am Main. Video recording link below.
O. Offenbach [About the Blumenbuch], lecture, ANRT Nancy, 2020.
Instant is an anachronic type family going from thin, quick handwritten letters to stable, black typographic shapes. Each of the five styles correspond to a singular design related to a specific stroke speed and weight: Vivid, Quick, Regular, Slow, Heavy. Hommage to the poet, painter and writer Henri Michaux (1899 – 1984), it questions fundamental differences between handwriting and typography, type family consistency and the relation and usage of roman, bold and cursive faces. Instant was designed by Jérôme Knebusch in 2005 as part of a personal research project at ANRT Nancy. First published in 2012 by BAT Foundry, it is today available at Poem. In 2020, Instant Variable was added to the collection.
Instant Variable, typeface, 2020. Published by Poem.
Visual identity and design of the Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création held at Rotondes and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain in 2021. The young art triennale is a major event for emerging artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region. Initiated during Luxembourg European Capital of Culture 2007, the Triennale was held for the fifth time in 2021. Under the curation of Kevin Muhlen, director of the Casino Luxembourg, the exhibition was highlightning a 'Brave New World Order' as seen and represented by millennials. Design of posters, booklets, ads, invitations, outdoor shops and more. The identity integrated the custom design of a typefaces in two styles. See here for more information on the design of the catalogue. Here for more information on the signage project. And here for the website.
Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création, Rotondes, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain, 2021.
Visual identity and design of the Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création website. The young art triennale is a major event for emerging artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region. The website showcases 40 artists and a forum, initiated during the Covid pandemic which delayed the exhibition for one year. Each artist could login and update his profile. The starting page is randomly customized, displaying each time in another order the black and white identity drawings. The identity integrated the custom design of a typefaces in two styles.
Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune création, Rotondes, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain, 2020-2021, w/ Thomas Bouville.
Je t'aime, moi non plus, Ergastule & My Monkey, Nancy, 2013-2017.
Etienne Pressager, Malzéville, 2006. etiennepressager.fr
Katjas Kinderkrippe, Baden-Baden, 2016.
Prix d'art / Kunstpreis Robert Schuman, École supérieure d'art, Église des Trinitaires, Centre d'art contemporain Faux Mouvement, Église Saint-Pièrre-aux-Nonnains, Metz, 2009.
Yona Friedman. La création, Centre d'art contemporain – La synagogue de Delme, 2009.
The conference explores a period in the history of typography that, relatively speaking, is not often studied: after Gutenberg and before the Jenson model was stabilized. The body of work study extends back to the first humanistic tendencies toward 'pure' romans, by way of many cases of uncertain designs, voluntary hybridizations, or archaic forms of roman. Undertaken between 2016 and 2020 at ANRT Nancy and coordinated by Jérôme Knebusch, this conference at ATypI Montréal in 2017 was the first public presentation of an ongoing research project. Its final outcome was an exhibition with symposium in 2019, and a book in 2021. Conference video link below.