By Émilie Rigaud
10 january 2021
Typographic world
This post presents all the (digital) French type foundries that are currently existing.
Before I made this list, when I was telling about French type foundries to my (French) students, it was always the same names popping in my head. And when I encouraged them to check websites that list type foundries from all over the world, some French type foundries were missing and some of the list were not proper ones or didn't exist anymore. So I decided to make an accurate list of the currently existing French type foundries.
I will first give, for a quick access, a raw list of the 22 French type foundries, then a few graphics that show their timeline and their distribution on the French territory. I will then explain the definition of "type foundry" that I followed to build this list, and finally you will find a short paragraph that presents each of these type foundries.
I tried to be exhaustive within the definition of "type foundry" that I give below, but if you see someone that I forgot who could be included according to this definition, please let me know.
List of the twenty-two active French type foundries :
205TF
A is for fonts
AinsiFont
Alfab
Apex
BB Bureau
Black[Foundry]
Blaze Type
Bureau Brut
Lift Type
Long Type
Octotypo (La Laiterie)
Pépite
Pizza Typefaces
Police studio
Production Type
SMeltery
Tunera
Typofonderie
Typographies.fr
Velvetyne
VJ-type
Timeline of the creation of these type foundries :
Distribution of the type foundries on the French territory :
Attempt of defining what is a type foundry :
By making this list, many questions arose about the definition of a digital type foundry. I chose to select here the websites that release typefaces themselves (whatever their licensing system is). Therefore it does not include independent type designers who sell their fonts on demand by email nor the designers who release their creations on an external platform such as myfonts or futurefonts. It could be interesting to list these people in an other article. For a list about the world of type design in France with way more categories, you can check this list in French made by Frank Adebiaye and maintained by Yannis Haralambous.
Based on these 22 type foundries, we can divide them into categories. Some categories are easy to make, such as the type of license that each foundry chose (« classical » segmented licenses, all-in-one licenses, open-source licenses, subscription). But it is not so easy to put type foundries in categories if you try to base it on their size for example.
Indeed, the range of possible variations of the size of the team for type foundries is very large : some of them publish only the designs of the type foundry creator, who is responsible for the design as well as for the type production (AND the communication AND the customer service), some other ones publish typefaces from a large number of designers, supported by a whole team, and all the intermediates between these two poles are possible.
Some typefaces are labeled under a specific designer, when other typefaces are signed with the name of the type foundry, including this way all the different actors (without necessarily naming them) who contributed to the final quality of the typeface.
The case of the CNAP that I did not keep in the list is also interesting : is it a type foundry or a patron? On one hand, the CNAP published two typefaces (Infini by Sandrine Nugue and Faune by Alice Savoie) but the intention seems different from a type foundry's intention. Rather than building a type library based on editorial choices, the goal was to create a tool with educational purpose, to show the importance of type design in France.
When we look at the graphics I made above, we can see a multiplication of French type foundries since 2014, 15 type foundries have been created within the short periode of time of 6 years. This evolution follows an exponential growth. A lot of French type foundries are based in Paris, more than half of them, but we can happily notice that it is not mandatory.
Graphic representing the creation of digital type foundries in France
All of the French type foundries
205 TF is a type foundry created in 2017 by the designers of Bureau 205 : Damien Gautier, Thomas Leblond and Florence Roller. You can find there the typefaces of different designers : Matthieu Cortat (15 typeface families), Damien Gautier (9), Thomas Huot-Marchand (3), Thomas Bouville (1), Juliette Colin (1), Thierry Fétiveau (1), Yoan Minet (1), Sandrine Nugue (1), Tassiana Nuñez Costa (1), Alice Savoie (1). Their type library is therefore broad and diverse.
A is for fonts is a type foundry created in 2010 by Émilie Rigaud. You can mainly find there typefaces designed by its founder (9), as well as fonts designed by Axel Pelletanche-Thévenart (2), Building Paris (2) and Jérémy Perrodeau (1). The type library is based on fonts that are expressive in large size, and whose shapes have been refined to be perfectly readable in small sizes as well. A is for fonts is guaranteed modular-fonts-free, because life is, most of the time, non-modular.
AinsiFont is a type foundry created in 1998 (under the name "La Fonderie Nordik", from 1998 to 2007), you can find there typefaces created by the designers of l’Atelier télescopique. The type library includes 12 font family that are mainly display ones.
Alfab is a young type foundry, created in 2018 by Bruno Bernard. You can find there 3 of his fonts, including the beautiful Adso inspired by the Textura script.
BB bureau
BB-bureau is a type foundry created in 2013 by Benoît Bodhuin. Its type library includes about twenty display fonts, all designed by Benoît Bodhuin.
Black[Foundry] is a type foundry created in 2014 by Grégori Vincens and Jérémie Hornus. It produces a lot of custom fonts for big companies and sells also fonts for retail. The designers include Jérémie Hornus, Ilya Naumoff, Benjamin Blaess, Julie Soudanne, Jean-Baptiste Morizot, Michel Derre, Luis Gomez, Joana Correia, Alisa Nowak. You can find in the type library some fonts that have been released on the Fontyou platform in the past.
Blaze type
Blaze Type is a type foundry created in 2016 by Matthieu Salvaggio. When browsing the type library, the names of the typefaces evoke mythologies and the end of the world. For now, the type library is based on typefaces by Matthieu Salvaggio (12) and Léon Hugues (2), but this new year will see some releases by new designers. The licensing system is a all-in-one license that contains the rights for a use for print, web and application.
Bureau Brut is a type foundry created in 2017, first under the name of Extrabrut, by the team of the eponymous graphic design studio. Hal of the fonts is signed « Bureau brut », some of them are by Yoan Minet alone, et there are two typefaces that have been made in partnership, one with Spassky Fisher and the other one with Julien Priez. The licensing system is all-in-one.
Lift Type is a type foundry created in 2014 by Romain Oudin and Nicolas Aubert. The typefaces are by Romain Oudin, Aloïs Ancenay, Benoît Hody and Antoine Brun. The type library is still small (5 fonts) but very promising, based on display fonts.
Long Type is a type foundry created in 2012 by Malou Verlomme, Mathieu Chevara, Mathieu Réguer and Thomas L’Excellent. The licensing system is a unique one, based on subscription, and the typefaces have been made by the designers of graphic design studios "Marge" and "Travers". The current type library includes three fonts, plus three other ones accessibles as beta version beta through subscription.
Octotypo is a type foundry created in 2001 by Julien Janiszewski to release his own typefaces, first under the name "La Laiterie" (until the end of 2020). Under its old name, the type foundry was selling 8 fonts, mainly display ones, and is reborn with a new website under the name "Octotypo" in january 2021.
Pépite is a type foundry created which published two typefaces since 2019, designed by Théo Guillard and by Vivien Gorse. It is supported by a collective team of 9 from various design fields, created in Toulouse in 2015.
Pizza Typefaces is a young type foundry, created in 2018 by Adrien Midzic and Luc Borho. The type foundry release its fonts through a all-in-one licensing system, including the use for print /web / application. The type library includes 11 font families, with a preference for display fonts.
Police Studio
Police Studio is a type foundry created in 2015 by Pierre Ferrandez, Eliote Shahmiri and Arthur Alazard. The type library includes 9 typefaces, shared between sans-serif fonts for long text and typefaces intended for display use.
Production Type is a type foundry created in april 2014 by Jean-Baptiste Levée. It produces a lot of custom fonts for big companies and sells also fonts for retail. The designers include Jean-Baptiste Levée (17 font families), Emmanuel Besse (4), SuperScript2 (4), Alaric Garnier (3), Bureau Brut (1), Studio Feed (1), Hélène Marian (1), Frank Jalleau (1), Ivan Murit (1), Gilles Poplin (1), Loïc Sander (1), Simon Renaud (1), Hrvoje Živčić (1).
The SMeltery type foundry has been around for a long time, as it has been created in 2002 by Jack Usine, who defines himself as a letter manufacturer. The type library is quite full of display fonts, most of them being available with a free license.
The Tunera type foundry has been created in January 2020 by Ariel Martín Pérez (6 font families), who was then joined by Anton Moglia (1).The typefaces are licensed under a free license according to the SIL Open Font model. Happy first anniversary to them!
The type foundry that is now named Typofonderie takes its roots in the first sales of Jean-François Porchez in 1995, which makes it the oldest digital French foundry still active today. The Porcheztypo website has been launched in 1997, replaced by Typofonderie in 2008. Most of the typefaces have been designed by Jean-François Porchez (16), but the type library includes also fonts by Stéphane Elbaz (2), Bruno Mello (1), Xavier Dupré (1), Aurélien Vret (1).
Typographies.fr is a type foundry created in 2008 by Jonathan Fabreguettes and Laurent Bourcellier. The type library includes typefaces for Latin alphabet of course, but also one for Coptic script and one for Braille. Jonathan and Laurent have a strong interest for typefaces made for scientific research and for visual disabilities.
Velvetyne is a type foundry created in 2010 by Frank Adebiaye, it quickly became a group adventure organized by a team of 10 people today. It is the biggest French type foundry to publish free typefaces. Velvetyne is a den for experimental and playful typefaces, and the type library is very diverse thanks to its 45 creators.
The VJ-type has been launched in February 2019 by the graphic design studio "Violaine et Jérémy" (Violaine Orsoni and Jérémy Schneider). Its type library includes 10 display typefaces, most of them have been first made as custom fonts for graphic design projects of the studio in the past years.
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