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ABOUT

Typofonderie (was: Porchez Typofonderie) [Jean-François Porchez]

Jean-François Porchez (b. 1964) lived in Malakoff near Paris until 2006, when he moved to Sèvres, and from there to Clamart in 2008. He studied at the Atelier Nationale de Recherche Typographique (or ANRT), and caught the world's attention when he created a new type family for Le Monde in 1994. His fonts Angie and Apolline were prize-winning entries at the Morisawa Typeface competition. He received the Charles Peignot award in 1998, and many awards at Bukvaraz in 2001 for fonts such as Ambroise and Anisette. He runs an increasingly important foundry, Porchez Typofonderie, and is the main typographical driving force in France today. He set up ZeCraft. Until 2004, he taught typography at ENSAD in Paris, and teaches occasionally at Reading. From 2004 until 2007, he was President of ATypI. His fonts:

• Airco Std (2020). An italic at 27 degrees to evoke speed.
• Allumi PTF (2009---Eurostile meets Frutiger). Allumi comes in 27 styles. In 2021, Allumi Inline was added. Allumi Dingbats (2009) is free: it has several fists and arrows.
• Alpha Poste (2005). A sans family for the group La Poste.
• Ambroise, Ambroise Firmin (condensed) and Ambroise François (extra condensed) (2001, 30 fonts in all). Inspired by late style (1830s) Didot's, and with g, y and k as in the types of Vibert, the Didot family punchcutter as per the specimen books of the Fonderie Générale. This family was updated and extended with a new italic in 2016 as Ambroise Pro.
• Angie (1995, FontFont). A flared humanist sans in six styles.
• Anisette (1997, Font Bureau), Anisette Petite (2001-2008). Anisette is an art deco / avant garde family. The Petite is trending towards a more standard geometric sans. Anisette Pro Petite appeared in 2013.
• The Typelab fonts Antwerpen (1993) and Antarée (1993).
• Apolline (1995-1998, Porchez Typofonderie).
• Arcane (1997, Ogilvy-Quérac).
• Ardoise (2010). An extension of the Charente typeface (1999), which Porchez designed for the daily La Charente Libre, following the simple style of Franklin Gothic. The typeface extension to normal widths was developed from 2006 by Porchez and was used in 2010 in the redesign of the magazine Pelerin. Porchez: Ardoise PTF and its 45 series could be considered as an homage to Antique Olive. [...] It is virtually immune to distortion.
• Audace Std (2020). A curvy sans.
• Bienvenue (1999-2000, for France Telecom), Francetelecom-Demi (1999-2000, also for France Telecom).
• Charente (2000).
• AW Conqueror (2010). Jean-François Porchez was approached at the end of 2009 by Reflex Image to create a set of typefaces to relaunch the Conqueror papers collection. AW Conqueror is a family of free fonts available at the slow, chaotic and dysfunctional Conqueror.com / Arjo Wiggins web site. Styles include AW Conqueror Sans, AW Conqueror Slab, AW Conqueror Inline, AW Conqueror Didot and AW Conqueror Carved (with horizontal stripes as in money fonts). Not to be confused with the 2005 family called Conqueror by Yuri Gordon.
• Courrier (1997).
• Deréon (2005). Custom design for Beyoncé Knowles, remotely related to Dwiggins' Caledonia.
• Disney Channel (1997).
• Henderson Serif & Sans [2006). A Baskerville-meets-Arial family conceived by J.-F. Porchez, but extended and perfected by J.-B. Levée.
• La Terre (1994-2000). Circulated on abf under the names BAAAAALaTerre-Regular in 2002.
• Le Monde Journal (1997), Le Monde Sans (1997), Le Monde Livre and Le Monde Livre Classic (1997), Le Monde Journal Ipa (2003, a phonetic family), Le Monde Costa (Costa Crociere), Le Monde Courrier (2002).
• Linotype Sabon (2002). An interpretation of Tschichold's Sabon. This project was conceived at Type Sexy Night in Leipzig with a thoroughly drunk Bruno Steinert.;
• Lion (1998, Peugeot automobiles).
• Pyrénée (1996, Albert Boton, Carré Noir).
• Mencken (2005). For the Baltimore Sun, dubbed a contemporary Didot by JFP himself. Mencken replaces Retina for the stock tables and small print---Retina was originally created by typographer Tobias Frere-Jones of Hoefler&Frere-Jones for use in The Wall Street Journal, but seems harder to read than Mencken). In 2017, it was developed into a 163-style family, consisting the low contrast transitional Mencken Text, and the Scotch didone Mencken Head. It was also used near the end of presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron. It is named after American journalist and satirist Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956). For a retail version, see Mencken (2020, Typofonderie).
• Parisine (1996). Read about the history here. Parisine Office was done in 2005 for the RATP. Other weights include Parisine Clair, Parisine Sombre, Parisine Plus.
• Renault Identité (2004). Designed for Renault, and based on lettering by Eric de Berranger.
• Retiro (2006-2009). A Didot headline suitably ibericized for the magazine Madriz. Winner at TDC2 2010.
• Singulier (2012) is a geometric sans typeface created for Yves Saint Laurent Parfums. It was inspired by the monogram and logotype called Yves Saint Laurent that was created by Cassandre in the early 1960s.
• Sitaline (a corporate type for SITA, 1998).
• Vuitton Persona (2007). An all-capital two-color custom font designed for Louis Vuitton Malletier. Retail since 2008.
• Ysans was conceived in 2010 and published in 2017. Influenced by Cassandre's lettering, this geometric sans is aimed at the fashion industry. Its beveled multiline version is Ysans Mondrian.
• In 2020, he designed Arteria, a compressed display typeface family inspired by Italian shop signs and wood types.
• In 2021, Porchez developed the wonderful copperplate calligraphic typeface family Altesse, which is a typographic adaptation of the scripts engraved by the French copperplate masters from the 19th and 20th centuries. Altesse comes in many optical sizes. It won the grand prize in the 2022 Tokyo TDC competition.
• In late 2021, he released Astronef Super, a retro-futuristic typeface family with seven weights pushed to the extreme on both ends.

FontFont write-up. Adobe write-up. Bio. At ATypI 2004 in Prague, he spoke about Parisine and legibility.

In 2014, Adverbum published the French/English book Jean François Porchez L'excellence typographique---The haute couture of typeface design, which has pieces by Karen Cheng, Aaron Levin, Muriel Paris and Sumner Stone.

Linotype link. Behance link. Another Behance link. FontShop link. MyFonts link. MyFonts interview in 2009. Behance link. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin.

View the typefaces made by Typofonderie Porchez. Adobe link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Typofonderie (was: Porchez Typofonderie)
 [Designer info]
Monotype link
Behance page
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Monospaced fonts ⦿ Phonetic (IPAfonts) ⦿ Type design in France ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Garalde or Garamond typefaces ⦿ Dingbats (original) ⦿ Fists, pointing hands ⦿ Typefaces with arrows ⦿ Books on type design ⦿ Baskerville ⦿ Scotch Roman ⦿ Fashion mag typefaces ⦿ Copperplate ⦿