Didot – Fragments of Beauty

Typefaces and Photography

elementi — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 17:23:09 +0000

This comes a little late. But I guess it is never too late to say thank you to one of the greatest fashion photographers in history who has passed away this year. What you see here is a typeface called Next which was part of my researches for Vogue Italy in the very late nineties just before the switch of the millenium. And it clearly breathes the spirit of those times. As a photographer friend of mine uses to say it is not only that a type designer maybe inspired by photography: it is also photography who can take advantage of typographic work opposed to, or better mixed with it. I am sure in this case I couldn’t hardly add something to the brilliance of Peter Lindbergh. Nevertheless, I am proud that my creations of that period were liked by Italian art director Luca Stoppini and later on have been admired by some influencer magazine art director in Germany, as well. The character itself, apart from clearly aiming at futuristic tendencies of that particular time period, was supposed to also keep some of the fashion like classicist taste which we know to find in Bodoni and Didot. The experimental way of interpreting this fact, though, is that hairlines of Next were introduced in other places, for example in parts of their asymmetric serifs. Certainly, a typeface like this today has less if any importance, but it is just nice to remember some of the inspiration that drove both of us. The type designer and the photographer himself. Thank you for this wonderful inspiration and, in general, for your awesome oeuvre of decades, Mr. Lindbergh! Read also [German and Italian language] Credits: Peter Lindbergh | Photography Vogue Italia | Editor

Nota, A Didot Font For Vogue

elementi — Sun, 25 Nov 2018 17:09:36 +0000

Almost two decades ago, Luca and I developed this classicist beauty mixed with some futuristic elements. It contains asymmetric serif remnants which are exact clone parts of a reduced set of curve segments used to create the entire alphabet. Unlike as it may seem on a first glance we didn’t use any of the existing Didot or Bodoni digital fonts but built it from the scratch. Its basis were original historical letters cut for Firmin Didot in the eighteenth century. It had only capital letters and a set of futuristic numbers. It is a task that has fallen into oblivion now for a while as today we have seemingly so many typefaces at the hand to create expressive editorial layouts. Quite often, though, those efforts suffer from something that Luca Stoppini himself probably would have called looking “cheap”. I remember the fun it was to create many versions and ideas for a “futurizable” classicist font as this in itself is kind of a contradiction from both a stylistic and historical point of view. Thanks again, Luca, for the great possibilities you gave me to develop myself in the direction of experimental typeface design. Cheers! See also

Memoir Italic Drawing Process

elementi — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 09:27:34 +0000

A typical drawing process scene when I am creating my fonts looks like this. When I have in mind a certain vague idea of what a character should express I am looking for some images that underline that kind of expression. I am convinced of the subconscious power of images. Keeping them opened beside my own creations helps them grow. In this particular case it is a font called Memoir (here the italic companion) which should gather aspects of a classic fashion font in Didot style, yet, have something very special on its own. Read also [Italian language] Credits: Paolo Roversi | Photography

Incantation

elementi — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 07:13:50 +0000

As part of my research work for Condé Nast, Italy, namely for a GQ magazine concept there remained some ultra classicist typefaces that weren’t used in the end. One of them is Incantation, a daring and mostly very experimental character. It breathes the air of Didot and others referring to its extreme contrast between stems and hairlines but it looses all their curves. They were replaced by strictly rectangular diamond like shapes. Its title derived from a fashion story by Vogue Italy. Its inspiration came from couture dresses and one its most dominating elements that is that of lace material. Like few others this material reflects femininity with an air of mysticism around it. Later on I used its strictly geometric forms for a personal research about Giorgio Armani’s brand. I imagined the ‘I’ as kind of a perfume bottle or package on which mystic black and white couture shoots should be projected. Credits: Paolo Roversi, Peter Lindbergh | Photography

Memoir

elementi — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 07:51:03 +0000

It was Luca Stoppini from Condé Nast asking me to do for a magazine concept (GQ) a Didot like typeface which should have a definite “computer influenced” shape. At this time we both experimented a lot with what later became a series of experimental typefaces. I started out doing some very rough sketches of characters that have a free classicist Bodoni spirit but consisted mainly in straight Bézier curve segments put together very quickly. Certainly my years long studies around the Italian punch cutters’ typefaces of the 18th century were quite helpful to not feel the need to hassle a lot with these shapes. They came quite natural to me and most of them stayed as they were originally sketched in the first trials. Credits: Paolo Roversi | Photography

Italian Archives

elementi — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 17:35:10 +0000

Some of the editorial characters that I did in the early 2000 years. It was an exiting period, everything seemed possible. Vogue Italy’s amazing art director Luca Stoppini gave me the inspiration to try all imaginable and unimaginable forms to set up new alphabets that could be used for story titling in magazine. I also collaborated on some of the already existing ones of that time. Credits: Luca Stoppini | Art Direction, Vogue Italy Franca Sozzani | Direction, Vogue Italy Paolo Roversi | Photography Stefan Seifert | Typeface Design, Layout