Typotheque Typefaces 1999-2009
Fedra Sans
Forewords
Typotheque is a graphic design studio and “digital type foundry”, founded by Peter and Johanna Bil’ak (ahhh, designer husband & wife duo…) in 1999. Anyone who’s interested in typography should bookmark their website, as it is full of useful and beautiful design things available for purchase such as books, t-shirts and of course typefaces as this is what they specialize in. To celebrate their 10 years anniversary, they sent us – and a bunch of other people, I’m sure – a nice little brochure that commemorate what they’ve accomplished in the last decade. I was very impressed by it, which was to be expected since it puts together a few of my most favourite design elements:
- A typography-based design;
- A good used of “the grid”;
- The use of black ink on newsprint;
- It’s Dutch (ok, that’s not really a design elements, but what I mean is that Dutch design is one of my favourite and a trip to Amsterdam is enough to convince anyone that design is ultra-present everywhere, even in the streets (see picture below).
You will notice that my favourite design elements all have one thing in common: they are simple. Yet, when you put them together the result is stunning and nothing is missing. No frou-frou and no need for fancy stuff. Just a well executed, simple design, like the Typotheque brochure above. A special mention goes to the envelope in which the brochure came in. Again, simple, typography based design but this time in a bright orange colour that contrast well enough with the brochure to create a balance when the two items are put together. We wish Typotheque a very happy 10 years old birthday, and look forward to their 20th anniversary brochure.
Amsterdam
