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Reviving the Signes Archive

The Signes Archive, dedicated to the history of graphic design and typography, offers a comprehensive collection of French and foreign works, enhanced by historical commentaries from Michel Wlassikoff, and builds on the legacy of the original signes.org site to provide valuable resources for students, professionals, and enthusiasts.
The Signes Archive, dedicated to the history of graphic design and typography, offers a comprehensive collection of French and foreign works, enhanced by historical commentaries from Michel Wlassikoff, and builds on the legacy of the original signes.org site to provide valuable resources for students, professionals, and enthusiasts.
The Signes Archive is dedicated to the history of graphic design and typography. More specifically, it focuses on French achievements in these fields - and/or those of foreign designers living or working in France. It is primarily aimed at students, professionals and enthusiasts of these disciplines. It is presented as a vast collection of printed works from the beginnings of typography to the 20th century. Most of these works are shown in their entirety, so that one can fully appreciate both their content and their production. This is the case of numerous type albums and catalogs from various type foundries over the centuries. Each of these works is the subject of a commentary based on solid historical references and often offering previously unpublished information.
The research and commentaries were written by Michel Wlassikoff, historian, teacher and author of several books on the history of graphic design and typography. The documents collected are held by various institutions, private archives and individual collectors. The names of the lenders are indicated after each book comment. Special thanks are due to the library of the École Estienne, which has made a large number of books on typography available to the site.
The Signes Archive follows on from the signes.org site opened in 2014, on the initiative of Bernard Baissait, graphic designer, and Michel Wlassikoff, which had set itself the goal of providing illustrated historical knowledge, accompanied by substantial commentary, in the fields of graphic design and typography. This initiative was initially supported by the French Ministry of Culture’s Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP). Technical problems led to the first site being shut down. On the initiative of Jean-Baptiste Levée, founder and director of the digital typographic foundry Production Type, the principle and essential content of signes.org was taken over, developed and completed, notably the commentaries by Michel Wlassikoff. The disappearance of signes.org had shown just how important such a site was for the younger generation of designers and researchers alike. Requests piled up for access to this exceptional documentation to be restored. The Signes Archive site responds to these requests, offering renewed, expanded and more easily accessible information.

Signes Archive complete index

XXth century


The Lumitype saga: France’s early attempts at phototypesetting
Deberny et Peignot’s “Ancien”, “Ondine”, “Typophane” ,“Cristal”, ca 1955
Hermann Zapf’s Manuale Typographicum
Collection Hollenstein, “L’Or”, André Chante
Maximilien Vox, Défense et illustration de la lettre, Paris, Monotype, 1955
“Type. Une sélection de caractères d’imprimerie” by Rudolf Hostettler — A notable 1958 compilation amidst the rise of phototypesetting and Swiss typography”
Lettera, Teufen / Arthur Niggli, reissue of the first collection, 1972
Compo DP, one of the last specimens of Deberny et Peignot
Atelier Adrian Frutiger, Paris: Brands & typography, the fusion of design and corporate identity in the 1960s
Deberny et Peignot’s “Univers”, 1957
Jan Tschichold, “Vues cavalières sur le modernisme en typographie”
André Chante, Collection Hollenstein, specimen-poster, circa 1970.
“Actualité littéraire”: a special issue featuring the mentors of Pierre Faucheux
“Lettres”, Paris, Arts et métiers graphiques, 1948.
Deberny et Peignot’s “Bodoni”, ca 1953
Joveneaux, La lettre dans la peinture et la publicité, ed. Charles Massin, 1950.
Art d’aujourd’hui: “Le graphisme et l’art”, 1952.
Deberny et Peignot’s “Contact”
Deberny Peignot’s “Spécimen Général”, ca 1953
Deberny et Peignot’s “Touraine”
Deberny et Peignot’s “Floride”
Fonderie Olive in 11 specimens, 1948–1963
Deberny et Peignot’s “Jacno”
Deberny et Peignot’s “Polyphème” and “Cyclopéen”
Maximilien Vox, SNCF typographic standard, 1942.
The Nebiolo foundry, Turin (1880–1978)
Cassandre’s “Bifur”, 1928
Deberny et Peignot, “Europe”: Beginnings of Futura in France (1928–1929)
Deberny et Peignot, “Banjo”, 1932
Cassandre’s Peignot, Deberny et Peignot foundry, 1933–1937
Vignettes, lettres, chiffres, monogrammes et réhauts modernes, éditions Guérinet, 1931
Alphabets, edition of the Arts et Métiers Graphiques magazine (1930)
Deberny et Peignot’s “Montaigne”
Deberny et Peignot, “Mantille” and ”Girandole”, ca 1930
Deberny et peignot, “Acier”, 1931
Deberny et Peignot, “Sphinx” and “Éclair”
Duvillé’s “L’art du tracé rationnel de la lettre”, 1934–1947
La Fonderie typographique française
Deberny et Peignot’s ”Sphinx”
“La Septième face du dé”, Hugnet and Duchamp’s hidden surrealism gem
Mise en page, The Theory and Practice of Layout
Deberny et Peignot, Spécimen Général, 1926
Deberny et Peignot’s “Naudin”, 1924
Jan Tschichold, “What is New Typography and what does it want?”
Deberny et Peignot’s “Astrée”
Deberny Peignot’s “Scribe”
Deberny et Peignot’s “Étoile”, ca 1934
Blaise Cendrars, preface to “Le spectacle est dans la rue” by Cassandre
Spécimen des caractères bois fabriqués par Deberny Peignot, circa 1935.
Deberny et Peignot’s “Pharaon”, 1932
Deberny et Peignot’s “Clichés et gravures”, 1934
Deberny et Peignot’s “Divertissements typographiques”, 1928–1930
Gefesselter Blick: capturing the eye, 1930
Deberny and Peignot, Album d’Alphabets pour la pratique du Croquis-Calque.
Deberny et Peignot, “Film” by Jacno, 1933
Deberny & Cie’s “Giraldon”
Francis Thibaudeau and the art nouveau movement in typography: innovations and impacts in early 20th century French printing
Jean Epstein, “Cinéma”
Garamond revivals: interpretations of the beginnings of the 20th century
Deberny Peignot’s “Robur”
Nouvelle collection de lettres
The “Alphabet des signaux de route”, toward unified road signage
“Lettres & enseignes”, the visual transformation of commerce and urban spaces during La Belle Époque
Deberny & Cie’s “Série Nº18”
Mucha, Documents décoratifs
La prose du transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France
Specimen Général de la fonderie G. Peignot & Fils, 1903–1904
G. Peignot & Fils’ “Della Robbia”
Reviving 18th-century typography: the Cochins series and its impact on early 20th-century French design
Stéphane Mallarmé, Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard, 1897–1914
Leonetto Cappiello and the evolution of advertising posters: from Art Nouveau to modern design, 1903-1937
Blaise Cendras, Fernand Léger: “La Fin du monde filmée par l’Ange N.D.”, 1919

XIXth century


Un autre monde, by Grandville, 1843
Jules Chéret and the transformation of the illustrated poster: innovations in lithography and the Belle Époque aesthetic
Spécimen des caractères de l’imprimerie du commerce by Evariste Mangin
Eugène Grasset and Éditions Larousse
Nicolas Glaise’s Modèles de lettres, Album du peintre en bâtiment, 1882 and 1887.
Typography and early poster advertising in France: from artisanal production to chromolithography, 1850–1870
The Beggarstaffs in England, 1894–1899
Eugène Grasset’s influence on Art Nouveau: from posters to typographic design, 1885–1900
Specimen des nouveaux caractères de la fonderie et de l’imprimerie de P. Didot l’aîné, 1819
Le Guide pratique du compositeur d’imprimerie by Théotiste Lefèvre
Grasset’s Histoire des Quatre Fils Aymon
The Anglaise types of Firmin Didot, 1806
The Elzevirian revival: reclaiming Renaissance excellence in nineteenth-century French typography
The bookstore poster in 1830s France
Jean Midolle’s Spécimen des écritures
Spécimen de la nouvelle fonderie de Jules Didot l’aîné, 1842
From singular sheets to satirical sheets: the evolution and cultural impact of occasional publications in France from the 15th to the 20th century
Le Jardin des Plantes: Romanticism and the art of bookmaking in the integration of text and illustration in 19th century French publishing
Firmin Didot, Feuille d’épreuve de la fonderie de Firmin Didot, 1820.
Jean Alexis Rouchon and the evolution of poster printing: from wallpaper techniques to public space advertising in Paris, 1844–1865
Histoire du Roi de Bohême et de ses sept châteaux by Charles Nodier, 1830

XVIIIth century

XVIIth century

XVIth century

XVth century

The Signes Archive is itself the extension of the revue Signes, which was a graphic design review created by Frédéric Massard, Michel Wlassikoff, and Muriel Paris. 22 issues we published between 1991 and 1998. The below covers are designed by Muriel Paris (Signes 9-10), Maria Arnold (Signes 12), Alexander Jordan (Signes 13-14), Pascal Béjean (Signes 20-21), Brigitte Monnier (Signes 22).

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