TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Mon Apr 15 06:06:52 EDT 2024

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ABOUT

Nouvelle Noire [Clovis Vallois]

Type and graphic design studio in Zurich, run by Clovis Vallois and Anton Studer.

Clovis Vallois (b. Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris) graduated in 2006 after studying visual communication in Freiburg, Germany. He worked for six months at the Studio Philippe Apeloig in Paris and subsequently set up his own design business. Clovis continued his studies in type design at the Zurich University of the Arts and graduated in 2008. Since then he has been working part-time at the Zurich University of the Arts while is running his design studio. In 2009 he was awarded with the Tokyo Type Directors Club 'Prize Nominee Work' for the Unknown Alphabet poster. In 2018, he designed NNNoire.

Anton Studer (b. Zürich, Switzerland) graduated as a graphic designer in 2006 and has since been working in the field of visual communication and type design. Anton Studer teaches part time at the Zurich University of the Arts in Zurich and at the Swiss college of textiles in Wattwil. He is the founding member of the Atelier Bubentraum which is an interdisciplinary design collective. Besides working extensively on several experimental font projects he has also worked on typeface projects with André Baldinger in Paris and developed the font Frank which is available at die Gestalten in Berlin and the Archiv Family which won Bronze at the European Design Award in Rotterdam in 2010. Anton was also awarded the Tokyo Type Directors Club 'Prize Nominee Work' for the Archiv typeface he created.

In 2012, the people at Nouvelle Noire in Zurich helped produce several of Apeloig's typefaces:

• The geometric modular experimental typeface ABF.
• ABF Lineaire (2013). A stencil typeface with elements of LED letters.
• ABF Silhouette (2009). Based on ABF Petiit, this typeface was developed for the 2009 conference on the Space and Architecture of Libraries.
• ABF Petit. Custom designed as part of a new corporate identity for the Association des Bibliothécaires de France.
• Coupé (2013): The font Coupé is based on the streamlined elegance of vintage sports cars. Apeloig designed these letterforms for an exhibition of fashion designer Ralph Lauren?~@~Ys car collection. The exhibition made its European premiere at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris accompanied by a poster inspired by the clean engineering of the automobiles.
• Poudre (2013). This font was created by Apeloig for a poster advertising an exhibition on the prolific inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel. Apeloig's concept was inspired by Nobel's invention of dynamite and work with subatomic particles.
• Ali (2013). An origami stencil typeface.
• Aleph (1994). Based on a simple arc, and influenced by Excoffon's Banco (1952).

The Nouvelle Noire typefaces:

• Medien (2009-2011). A sans typeface by Anton Studer created as a multipurpose all-media design.
• Ernesto (2010). Created originally for the corporate identity of EWERK Freiburg, Germany. He says: The Ernesto typeface combines the grotesque and the geometrization of the past times to the modern times. Ernesto adopts the diagonal slant of the architecture in some letters of the alphabet.
• Rekja (2009-2011, Anton Studer at Nouvelle Noire). This rounded transitional typeface won an award at TDC2 2012.
• Rektorat (2018, Nouvelle Noire and Rudolf Barmettler): In 2001, during a renovation of the Zurich School of Applied Arts and Crafts (today ZHdK), hand lettered signage was discovered hidden behind ancient wallpaper. The letters were individually painted and had been applied by hand in 1930 as signage for the modernist building. The letter designs are assumed to be the work of Ernst Keller. Between 2001 and 2004, Prof. Rudolf Barmettler, in collaboration with students, digitized the letters and combined them into fonts. In conjunction with the recent renovation of the Design Museum, Prof. Barmettler, in collaboration with the Zurich-based type foundry Nouvelle Noire, has drawn Rektorat, a type family based on this historical lettering.
• NN Forever Grotesk (2020). A wonderful entrance into the world of Helvetica and Univers. Modernist, almost hipster, modifications were introduced to make one smile (in their own words). While great, the walking stick of the capital G is (intentionally) too thin and cripples the design. Otherwise it is very refreshing. Under pressure, renamed later in 2020 to NN Nouvelle Grotesk.

Behance link. Clovis Vallois and Anton Studer spoke at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Nouvelle Noire
Behance page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type design in Switzerland ⦿ Type design in France ⦿ Experimental type ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿