In celebration of the pop-up ‘Explicit Graphics’ at Galeries Lafayette Paris, Études invited Maximage to create an artwork around the theme of Music. Limited edition of 100.

Developed between 2008 and 2013, Programme is an innovative typeface which is based both on calligraphy and computer programming. With the help of scripting technology, the typeface was developed in two different versions: a more sophisticated and a rougher angular cut.

The family is now available in four weights, including italics and extra rotated versions. In some cases the imperfections of the program have not been retouched to keep the type’s original essence. That is why Programme exists in two alternative styles : a rougher and a more refined version. Through OpenType features, the user can alternate between those styles by activating the Stylistic Sets in groups or individually. As an additional cut, Programme Primitiv is the ‘original’ version generated by the script – without any retouching and grading – this archetype perfectly meets display requirements as its simple and brutal sharpness add to the visual experience.

Typography and exercises in scripting

The project began with a simple question: is there such thing as a computer program capable of taking over the routine tasks of letter design? This issue, both artistic and digital, led the professors and the students of the Masters in Art Direction of the ECAL to imagine exchanges back and forth between digital type specifications and the actual shape of letters. They went into more general questions about the groups of shapes that make up our letters—stems, curves, and serifs—asking themselves how they could possibly simplify and further amalgamate these groups of shapes that monopolize the energy of schoolchildren, illustrators, and type designers alike. Calligraphy and hand-drawn letters comprise series of strokes and curves; mechanical typography does too, through the engraving process of punches and counter-punches. Digital typography, however, dematerializes this operation, leaving the choice of formal references open-ended. Does that mean novel forms of design could evolve through manipulating fonts' algorithmic data?
Several small scripting programs were developed and tested by the students during a series of workshops. From a set of typography experiments based on these simple scripts, Maximage designed a text typeface that is featured in this book and displays the characteristics of the tool that generated it. As an extension to this concept, mobile wooden characters were made as a materialization of a graphic application arising from scripting techniques; this enabled play with typographic equipment, hand setting, spaces, and printing. The intention of building project-specific, sometimes unstable tools was to be part of a quest for unity within a graphic project the initial design and production stages of which were characterized by the same approach: extending the scope of the typographic game.

Awarded by the “Swiss Design Awards 2009”.