Press Kit - Les Arts Décoratifs

Press kitTyporamaPhilippe ApeloigThe Typorama bookTyporama, Philippe Apeloig, graphic designMore than a mere monograph, this book is an invitation to explorethe inner world of Philippe Apeloig’s creative process.The idea germinated when Philippe Apeloig and Tino Grass, a youngGerman graphic designer, met during a series of lectures on typographyin Düsseldorf in 2006. When he discovered Philippe Apeloig’s archives,Tino Grass wanted to illustrate his creative process by showing thesuccessive stages of a project, from the initial sketches to the final design.The book begins with two essays by Alice Morgaine and Ellen Lupton,fully illustrated with images, clips from films and other sources revealingPhilippe Apeloig’s imaginative universe.The book is then divided into two sections.Edited by Tino Grass, a Cologne-based graphicdesigner. He has been teaching typography inseveral universities for art and design. He is theauthor of a book on typography, Schriftgestalten,über Schrift und Gestaltung (Niggli, 2008).Essays by:Ellen Lupton, curator of the contemporary collections at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, NationalDesign Museum in New York, and author of severalpublications, including Thinking With Type. A CriticalGuide for Designers (2004), Skin. Surface, Substance,Design (2007) and Graphic Design. The New Basics(2008).Alice Morgaine, adviser to the artistic directorof Hermès. She began her career as a journalistat L’Express (1962-1978) and at Jardin des modes(1979-1997), then curated the exhibition programmeat the Verrière-Hermès in Brussels (1999-2012).The commentaries were written by Ann Holcomb,based on descriptions and project histories providedby Philippe Apeloig. The French version of thesetexts was edited by Michel Wlassikoff.– The first section has five thematic chapters:Museums,Theatre, music and dance,Publications,Posters and typography,Logos and visual identities.An exhaustive overview of Philippe Apeloig’s finished works, each withdetailed commentaries and fully illustrated, ranging from the posters forthe Musée d’Orsay when it first opened in 1986-87 to logo of the LouvreAbu Dhabi in 2013.– The second section focuses on Philippe Apeloig’s preparatory studies,presented chronologically from the most recent to the earliest. His computer drawings, photocopies, photos, collages and sketches all provide afuller understanding of how he develops his projects, and also highlightthe evolution of design techniques since the 80s, when digital technologyrevolutionised the work of the graphic designers of his generation.The Typorama book gave rise to the exhibition at the Musée des ArtsDécoratifs from November 21st, 2013 to March 30th, 2014.Format: 29.5 24 cm, 893 imagesSewn bindingDesign: Tino Grass with the participationof Anna Brugger for Studio ApeloigCover: Philippe ApeloigPrix (incl. VAT): 55 French version: Éditions Les Arts DécoratifsEnglish version: Thames & Hudsonwww.lesartsdecoratifs.frNovember 21st, 2013 – March 30th, 20147

The book TyporamaPress kitTyporamaPhilippe ApeloigThe prints of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige and GuillaumeApollinaire’s poem “Il Pleut” (1918), handwritten in lines of rainfall,would further alter Apeloig’s perception of how movementcan be conveyed visually. He began to choreograph lettersand entire words in a way similar to how the German Bauhauspainter, sculptor, and director Oskar Schlemmer had reconfiguredthe human form in geometric terms. “When one creates aposter, a logo, or a typeface,” says Apeloig, “one is constantlyreferring back to the Bauhaus in one way or another.”When working at the Musée d’Orsay some years later, Apeloigcame across the photographs of Étienne-Jules Marey andEadweard Muybridge, which deconstruct the process ofwalking and running via a series of freeze frames. Movementand the passing of time, the links between the past and thefuture, have remained an integral part of Apeloig’s work.1315Total DesignThe library at the School of Applied Arts had only threebooks on contemporary graphic design – two didactic worksand a copy of Milton Glaser’s Graphic Design (1973) witha psychedelic portrait of Bob Dylan on its cover – so Apeloigbegan to build his own collection. His first purchase wasEnglish designer F. H. K. Henrion’s Top Graphic Design (1983),which introduced him to Roman Cie lewicz, Odermatt & Tissi,and, most importantly, Wolfgang Weingart. Apeloig dreamedof studying under Weingart, who, he later said, “turnedSwiss graphic design on its head. As the pioneer of all thatwould subsequently be achieved through the use of computers, he is the spiritual father of contemporary graphic design.”1214Roger Druet was aware of his student’s reading materials andinterest in graphic design and suggested that Apeloig applyfor an internship with the Dutch design studio Total Designduring his second year. Apeloig applied and landed a threemonth placement at this important design studio on the banksof Amsterdam’s Herengracht canal. The summer of 1983he worked as part of Daphne Duijvelshoff-van Peski’s team,surrounded by fellow students from Switzerland, Germany,and America, all of whom were better trained. He soon familiarized himself with the work of Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich,Gerrit Rietveld, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Zwart, and the DutchDe Stijl art movement, and he began to work on variousposter projects and annual reports, while also learning aboutthe fundamentals of page layout, including the grid.171618Abstract graphic designer Wim Crouwel and five peers hadfounded Total Design in 1963. Crouwel was fascinated bythe possibilities offered by computers and in 1967 designedthe audacious typeface New Alphabet, an early attempt ata digital type. It consisted only of straight segments, similarto architectural elements. The computerized geometry ofthe letters served as a springboard for creativity. The followingyear, Crouwel designed a totally novel black-and-whitetypographic poster for the exhibition “Vormgevers” (Designers)at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and left the construction grid visible (page 208). In his brochure New Alphabet,published in 1967, Crouwel explained the origins and guidingprinciples of his almost elemental graphic approach. Thebrochure remains an essential read for anyone designingcharacters today – an introduction to the possibility of creatingfreely with letters. During his internship, Apeloig was luckyenough to try out Aesthedes, the latest and most sophisticatedcomputer system available during the early 1980s. He wasquick to recognize that computers would transform graphicdesign, both in practice and in outcome, as every aspect oftypography would become easy to manipulate at will.Total Design took a primarily functionalist approach to designbut also nurtured the spirit and theories of the De Stijlmovement, which could be applied to both industrial designand to typography. Crouwel himself was greatly influencedby contemporary art and he designed numerous exhibitionposters for the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven between1950 and 1960, and for the Stedelijk Museum between 1963and 1985. His posters avoided the simple reproduction ofa work of art, instead opting for an assertively modernist andanalytically abstract typographical approach that still clearlyreflected a modern aesthetic. Apeloig learned from thisapproach and from the questions forever being posed in theTotal Design studio: “How can we turn something seeminglyfunctional into something creative?” “How can we adjusttypography to its correct scale, and intuitively manageto position and order everything perfectly, while retaininga specific emotional tension?” In 2010, aware of Apeloig’sadmiration for Crouwel and at the instigation of Unit Editions,the Design Museum in London invited Apeloig to createa limited-edition poster for its exhibition on the Dutch designer(page 209). The poster followed Crouwel’s grid and orthodoxyto the letter. Total Design’s conciseness, rigor, functionality,and highly original sophistication had a lasting influenceon the idealistic, enthusiastic Apeloig, who remembers how hefelt, even then, like “I was in the right place at the right time.”12 Wolfgang Weingart (born in 1941)Schreibkunst, 1981PosterKunstgewerbemuseum, Zurich13 Milton Glaser (born in 1929)Bob Dylan, 1973PosterMusée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris14 F. H. K. Henrion (1914 – 1990)Top Graphic Design, 1983BookABC Verlag, Zurich15 Gerrit Rietveld (1888 – 1964)Zig-Zag Chair, 1934Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris16 Philippe ApeloigTotal Design Intern Report, 1983Montage of film stickersand transfer lettersAmsterdam17 Wim Crouwel (born in 1928)New Alphabet, 1967BrochureDe Jong & Co. Lithographers,HilversumStichting Stedelijk Museum,Amsterdam18 Wim CrouwelFernand Léger, 1957PosterVan Abbemuseum, EindhovenStichting Stedelijk Museum,Amsterdam14 15Direction des muséesde FranceThe Direction des musées de France (NationalMuseum Board of France, an arm of the Ministryof Culture and Communication) has administrativeresponsibility for thirty-four national museumsand over 1,150 regional, local and associatively runmuseums. In need of a standardized, uniform systemto identify every institution under its purview, thegovernment agency launched a competition fora universal ideogram, which Apeloig won. The goalwas to create a logo that would allow the publicto instantly identify the museums on a map,in publications, and in situ as part of this network.LogotypeDirection des musées de France, ParisTypeface: Frutiger Condensed Black2004See pages 316 – 17The design concept was developed around a lowercase m, set in Frutiger Condensed Black. The small mis friendlier and less intimidating than a capital Mand so suited to making public sites of high cultureseem more accessible. The m is placed insidean open rectangle delineated by dotted and dashedlines. The compositional arrangement resemblesa gal

de La Martinière, Robert Laffont, Phaidon Press), art galleries (Galerie Gagosian, Galerie Achim Moeller) and major brands (Puiforcat and Hermès). . Philippe Apeloig, graphic design More than a mere monograph, this book is an invitation to explore the inner world of Philippe Apeloig’