REPTIL AND TURTLE by Giacomo Checcucci
In May 2025, two graphic designers based in Paris, Raphaël de La Morinerie and Ethan Nakache, launched a new typeface on WrittenShape and The Designers Foundry. It’s called Reptil, an elegant reinterpretation of the typeface Turtle. Let’s take a step back to better understand the original model. Turtle was created by Bob Newman for Letraset in 1971. At that time, Letraset had already been marketing its dry-transfer lettering sheets for ten years. And Bob Newman was already the author of iconic typefaces such as Pump, Zipper, Frankfurter, and Data 70.Turtle, however, is in some ways his most problematic project. So heavy and rounded, it is highly impactful but difficult to decipher. As a result, it initially failed to gain success in the world of graphic design. In 1974, however, it began to receive some attention: it was used on flyers for Atari’s “Qwak!” video game and on the cover of Oliver’s album “Standing Stone”. And Turtle has a special connection to that album. Here too, we need to start from the beginning. Produced in the Welsh countryside and released in just 250 copies, “Standing Stone” is a masterpiece of British music, characterized for its surreal mix of folk, blues, and psychedelia. But its most distinctive feature is the aura of mystery surrounding both the artist and the songs—so eccentric and obscure. As for the cover, the use of Turtle was the result of a brilliant idea by the singer-songwriter’s brother, sound engineer Chris. The rounded, bloated letters, set against a solid-colored background—blue or green depending on the edition—are the central element of the graphic design. And they prove to be perfect for shaping the title of a work in which much of the sung lyrics are deliberately unintelligible. After 1974, Turtle gradually faded from view, appearing in only a small number of publications. In more recent years, however, it has inspired the typeface BD BonBon by Heinz Widmer and Turtellini NF by Nick Curtis. And now it comes back to life thanks to a particularly striking reinterpretation. With Reptil, Raphaël de La Morinerie and Ethan Nakache seem to deliberately play with the limits of legibility. Of course, the font is perfectly readable. But the project revolves around a paradox: how essential, in the world of communication, a certain degree of interference, misunderstanding, and—why not—incommunicability can be. To clarify this and other points, we interviewed the two graphic designers directly involved:





Hi Ethan, hi Raphaël. Let’s start with introductions. Not much is known about you beyond the fact that you’re two graphic designers based in Paris. Can you tell us a bit more about yourselves?
Raphaël: “During our adolescence, we did graffiti in the streets of Paris and Brussels, and that’s how we got interested in graphic design and more specifically typography. After attending an art school with a focus on graphic design and typography in Brussels, I studied type design in detail in Lausanne, Switzerland. Then I came back to Paris to start my freelance graphic design career in 2020 and launched my type foundry WrittenShape in 2023. Since then, I’ve been working for clients in fashion and culture. At the same time, I create and publish typefaces and teach at a design school.”
Ethan: “After studying fine arts in Paris at the Sorbonne, I gradually turned towards calligraphy, which was my gateway into type design. I then pursued a three-year bachelor’s degree in typography at La Cambre in Brussels, where I deepened my practice and developed a real sensitivity for letterforms. I also did an exchange program at UQAM in Montreal, focusing heavily on typography within graphic design. Back in Paris, I interned at Black[Foundry], which gave me the foundations to start my career as an independent type designer. Since then, I’m developping my own fonts and work for a lot of Foundries.”

What are your main past projects?
Raphaël: “My most accomplished and recognized type project is my typeface Gaya. In graphic design, I’ve worked on cultural signage for several exhibitions in museums in Rouen, projects I particularly enjoyed because the subjects were always really interesting.”
Ethan: “Among my most significant individual projects are Goodman, a typeface I released last year at The Designers Foundry, and Nuances, a display serif family I developed in 2022 with a quite expressive approach. This year, I’ve had the chance to collaborate with several foundries, including The Designers Foundry, Blast, Tight Type, and Fatype. I’ve worked both on character development projects and original creations for these foundries, while continuing to draw my own fonts in parallel.”

How would you describe the two platforms you’re affiliated with, WrittenShape and The Designers Foundry?
Raphaël: “WrittenShape is the independent foundry I launched in 2023 to commercially publish and distribute the typefaces I created during my studies and those I create each year.”
Ethan: “TDF is a New Zealand-based foundry run by Daniel McQueen, where I’ve been working for a few years. I first released a typeface there, Goodman, then continued collaborating with Daniel. Later, I proposed to publish Reptil on his platform, TDF, simultaneously with Raphaël’s platform.”

Now let’s talk about Reptil. How did this newly released project come about?
Raphaël: “I spend a lot of time digging through typographic archives online, searching for exotic and original letterforms. I have a real taste for vintage typefaces. It was by browsing Luc Devroye’s site that I discovered Turtle. I really liked these intriguing geometric shapes because I saw a lot of potential for a contemporary reinterpretation.”

Reptil is a reinterpretation of the Turtle typeface. What are the main differences compared to the original?
Raphaël: “The major difference is that Turtle was hand-drawn, while Reptil was constructed on the computer using only quarter circles. The precision offered by type design software allowed us to reinterpret and further develop the modular system of Turtle. We first sought to understand Bob Newman’s intentions, then we diverged so each glyph could be constructed with our new system.”
Ethan: “I find Raphaël’s answer very complete. For my part, I would say the computer gave us incredible freedom, especially thanks to the ease of swapping and rearranging modules. After fully understanding the original Turtle design, this digital flexibility allowed us to explore variants while respecting the initial spirit. We strayed a bit at times, but the result remains very coherent with the shapes and intentions of the original font.”

Bob Newman created Turtle for Letraset in 1971. What do you think of Newman as a graphic designer and of the Letraset experience? In particular, Letraset’s dry-transfer lettering method was a game changer. What are your thoughts on that?
Raphaël: “Since we’re just entering our thirties, we never experienced graphic arts before computers. I imagine the dry-transfer lettering method must have significantly changed the way typography was composed and drawn. It’s worth noting that at that time many extravagant and playful typefaces appeared, mostly created not by trained type designers but by graphic designers worldwide. I think especially of the international typography contest organized by Mecanorma, open to everyone.”
Ethan: “I know relatively little about Bob Newman’s work as a graphic designer. For me, he’s mostly known for Turtle, and I’ve looked a bit at his other fonts, but they didn’t mark me as much as this one. As for the Letraset era and the dry-transfer technique, Raphaël summarized it well. We’re barely 30 and didn’t live through that time. My only memory of dry-transfer letters is from my studies at La Cambre, where typography professors gave us dry-transfer sheets to handle. We had some fun using them playfully, and the teachers told us about their history, but we never really did a serious project with the technique. But I love this era of fonts, lots of really display and goofy fonts.”

Newman designed typefaces that made history, such as Pump, Zipper, Frankfurter, Data 70, and Penny Farthing. Which one is your favorite? And if you had to choose another of his typefaces to reinterpret, which would it be?
Raphaël: “Yes, Bob Newman was a great designer. Personally, I really like Frankfurter, a typeface very present in the typographic landscape since the ’80s. You don’t necessarily notice it because it has a quite classic construction. Unconsciously, I associate it with Haribo candies—it brings back good memories. In terms of design, I’d say Penny Farthing has an interesting system that deserves to be revisited!”
Ethan: “My favorite font is Penny Farthing. I also really like Data 70, but I think it’s had enough revivals recently. If I had to choose another Bob Newman font to reinterpret, it would probably be Penny Farthing, like Raphaël. It offers a system rich in ligatures and interesting details, which would be a real creative challenge.”

Was Turtellini NF by Nick Curtis, created for Nick’s Fonts in 2011, simply a digital revival of Turtle?
Raphaël: “Yes, it’s a revival in the classical sense. I imagine Nick Curtis added many glyphs so the font would suit contemporary use. It’s amazing how many novelty typefaces Nick Curtis has digitized.”

In 1974, three years after Turtle was published by Letraset, Oliver self-released the album “Standing Stone” in the Welsh countryside, in only 250 copies. On the cover — blue in the first print, green in the second — the title was composed using Turtle’s uppercase letters, thanks to a clever idea by the singer-songwriter’s brother, Chris. For an album where most of the lyrics are hard to make out, this typeface is actually perfect. What do you think of this kind of minimalist design?
Raphael: “If we consider typography as the written form of language, then when you tell me Oliver’s lyrics are hard to understand, using Turtle for his album cover seems like a good choice! We even hesitated for a moment to call our font Maze, referring to its sometimes challenging legibility.”

One of Turtle’s — and therefore Reptil’s — main characteristics, besides its round shapes, is its difficult legibility. For someone whose goal is communication, this is clearly a paradox. What are your thoughts on this, and what fascinates you about the topic?
Raphaël: “What I really liked about this typeface is its impact, its immediate presence. It’s its radical characteristics and complex shapes that make Turtle so unique. Bob Newman clearly chose visibility and expressiveness over legibility. These are two parameters you constantly have to balance when designing a typeface.”
Ethan: “As a type designer, legibility is obviously important. However, for display typefaces, it is just as valid to move away from it sometimes. I see typography as having two main fields of application: on one side, text typography, whose primary function is to transmit information clearly and effectively— aesthetics are important, but secondary. On the other side, display typography involves a totally different challenge and has another purpose. Its main role is to create a strong visual impact, to attract the eye, provoke, and capture attention. In that respect, Turtle works perfectly. Sure, it requires some effort to read, but it’s primarily a very expressive and powerful display font. That’s actually what Raphaël and I liked so much and what motivated us to reinterpret and develop it. To conclude, I would say it’s a paradox that isn’t really one. I don’t think Reptil’s primary goal is communication in the strict sense, but rather visual impact—showing precisely that this paradox exists without being contradictory.”

While supplies last, those who purchase the Reptil font receive a promo pack that includes a 3D-printed magnetic puzzle and an A3 risograph poster. I read that in the past, The Designers Foundry also produced items like clocks and bricks to promote fonts. How did this kind of promotion come about?
Raphaël: “Yes, the clock was a great object! For most of the typefaces Daniel McQueen publishes, he develops an object. I really like this idea because it helps the font escape the digital sphere. It becomes a real object that you can hold in your hands.”
Ethan: “I think Daniel really had a visionary approach by creating objects to accompany the release of his most unique fonts. As Raphaël explained well, this allows typography to step out of the digital sphere and become tangible, concrete, and real on a physical medium. For Reptil, the little magnetic puzzles were perfect because they directly play with the modular aspect of the typeface. It turns typography into a playful object in its own right, beyond its purely graphic use.”

Do you already have another typeface in mind to bring back to life? Can you share anything about your upcoming projects?
Raphaël: “Yes! Another typeface from the 1970s as well. It’s quite rare—I found very few images of it. It has very surprising shapes.”
Ethan: “For now, I don’t plan to dive into revivals but rather focus on original creations. My last big project, Goodman, was indeed a revival, and while I really enjoy that kind of work, I also equally appreciate creating typefaces from paper sketches and spontaneous ideas. I believe typography should always keep a link with certain traditional canons, but when you can free yourself from any existing model, it opens up great creative freedom. It’s towards that freedom I intend to move for my next release, planned for the end of the year.”

I hope that a genius like Oliver will release a work of art using your font. Your project truly deserves.
Raphaël: “Thank you Giacomo! We’re really glad that you saw and appreciated our project!”
Ethan: “It’s really nice to create links between Type design and music.”

Raphaël de La Morinerie and Ethan Nakache with Giacomo Checcucci. 

Giacomo Checcucci is an Italian researcher specializing in music and graphic design, and the manager of the blog Pincopanco. He has written articles and published interviews for Aquarium Drunkard, SentireAscoltare, and Quants.