‘What if' is a typical question for an alternate history scenario, also called Uchronia: choose a starting point in history and imagine a different outcome. Based on Futura Fett, released by the Bauer Foundry in Frankfurt in 1928, the type was pushed to extreme blackness without loosing its historical reference nor becoming a caricature. Decisions Paul Renner took to achieve maximum boldness like opening the counters of some letters were taken even further. The typeface, designed by Constantin Pfeiffer & Jérôme Knebusch and released in 2020, was initially created during a workshop at the Gutenberg Museum Mainz at the occasion of the 'Futura. Die Schrift' exhibition in 2017. It has a single weight (among the blackest one can find), five widths and respective oblique versions. The glyphset is extended with Futura's iconic historical alternates, ‘Schmuck-Elemente' (decorative geometric forms) and a complete range of thin punctuation marks and diacritics.

Custom typeface in two styles, upright and italic, respectively entitled 1981 and 1996. While the first is a relecture of the first digital typefaces and their idiosyncratic approach, the second, more mature, comes closer to 1990s humanistic sans serifs. Used exlusively for the identity design of Brave New World Order – Triennale Jeune Création held at Rotondes and Casino Luxembourg. The young art triennale is a major event for emerging artists from Luxembourg and the Greater Region. The 2021 edition was devoted to the millennials generation. See here the typeface use within the overall design. See here the typeface use within the design of the catalogue. Here for on the signage project. And here for the website. A preliminary version was used here.

One hour conference about four typeface projects: Instant, Almost, Triennale and Nouveau. Given at Fonts & Faces symposium #9 curated by Simon Renaud. Video recording link below.

ARTEM, which stands for Art, Technology and Management, is an original initiative set up by the École nationale supérieure d'art et de design de Nancy, ICN Business School and Mines Nancy. It combines the creation and the integration of new technologies with a managerial, strategic, economic and legal perspective. By crossing cultures – of the scientist or engineer from Mines Nancy, that of the manager from ICN Business School, and that of the artist or designer from the École nationale supérieure d'art et de design de Nancy – the Artem Alliance invites students to think outside the box by plunging them into the heart of issues and logics that are a priori far removed from their field of excellence. The exclusive custom typeface was commissioned successively between 2007 and 2017. The main idea and concept of Artem's graphic identity lies in the shared use of an exclusive typeface. Rather than stamping documents, it is a shared voice that speaks through the typeface. With a linear, pragmatic design based on Johnston (Edward Johnston, 1916), it has the distinctive feature of mixing capitals and lower case letters. Known as unicase (a single typographic case), the capitals of the acronym ARTEM blend in as small capitals among the lower case letters. There is no real set of capitals. The typeface is available in five weights: Thin, Light, Regular, Bold and Black. It is designed for headlines and short texts, where the design is as visible as it is readable. It is used throughout the Artem campus, for signage and on-screen and printed documents. See also the extension Artem Bureau on this website.

Decode Blockdock is a font which integrates a representative, uniformed glyph for each encoded Unicode block. Commissioned by Johannes Bergerhausen from Institut Designlabor Gutenberg/ Hochschule Mainz and used for the decodeunicode and worldswritingsystems websites (links below), and its iconic poster together with the missing scripts (ANRT research program). Ongoing work since 2015.

Triennals, prefiguration event of the Luxembourg young contemporary art triennale, with former triennale participants. Custom single-typeface and 'ongoing' visual identity which will evolve in the Brave New World Order identity of the triennale held one year later. See this website for more.

‘La page projetée. Livres fictionnels au cinéma’ [The projected page. Fictionnal books in movies] is a pedagogical project led by the Institut Page at ESAL Metz, in collaboration with Léo Coquet, Elamine Maecha, and the institute's students. We analyzed existing films that feature fictional books – books that appear only on screen and were never actually edited or published. These books are often reduced to their physical appearance as cinematic props, typically limited to a cover. Yet they actively contribute to the narrative and, in some cases, even extend it. The research project was presented during The 2024 Biennale Exemplaires in Valence and a one-day symposium in Metz, featuring Agatha Masa, officeabc, Alice Planes, and Pierre Leguillon. This event was promoted via social media and a printed poster. A (filled) popcorn cup was handed out at the entrance of the symposium, with the program printed on it.