Cardinal

Cardinal In Use

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  ”I call ‘Whole-World’ our universe such as it changes and endures through exchange…” This line by Martiniquan poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant (1928–2011) was chosen by the Maison de la Culture Amiens as the guiding star of a festival held annually since 2019. The term Whole-World (Tout-monde) can be understood in correspondence to Glissant’s concept of multicultural creolization in which all individuals and societies can profit from cultural exchange, leading to completely new, otherwise nonexistent cultural phenomena. The Maison de la Culture Amiens (MCA) is the major cultural hub of that Northern-French city. It is a multi-partite house showcasing exhibitions, theater, dance, cinema and many other forms of visual and performative arts. In earlier posts we presented Julien Lelièvre’s redesign of MCA’s visual identity and his work on program brochures and advertising material. While these are usually very colorful, Lelièvre takes a whole different approach in the design for the Festival Amiens Tout-monde. It is exclusively black and white and uses a single typeface collection: Cardinal from Production Type. Cardinal Classic is a roman of normal width but available in three different variations with regard to the length of its ascenders and descenders. Cardinal Classic Short is in use here for all reading texts. On the headline level you can see Cardinal Fruit in different weights. This branch boasts condensed proportions and an expressive italic. In some way this reduced design concept seems to counteract the spirit of the festival whose aim it is to bring artists from around the world together and in touch with the local scene. At a second look, the omission of color can be read as an invitation to discover the actual event in full color in person. The reduction also offers a stage for the different artists and illustrators that were invited over the years to spark the crowd’s curiosity.

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  Cardinal Classic Long Bold

  Festival Amiens Tout-monde (2019–)
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  Trax is France’s leading magazine and website for electronic music and culture. Founded in Paris in 1997, Trax was historically intermingled with its subject (from the early days of the “French Touch” to later major acts), witnessing, recording, and surviving the dramatic changes of the music industry and the rise of electronic culture. In 2013, the magazine was eventually bought by its own employees. Trax turned 18 in 2015 and decided to reflect these changes with a new format. Production Type’s Jean-Baptiste Levée, in collaboration with Large design studio, rethought the new Trax from the ground up. Starting from a new magazine format and art direction, and a new logo drawn by Levée (based on Stunt Nord, a standalone style of the Stunt family, to be released), the overhaul extended beyond the magazine to all aspects of the Trax brand, such as the website, events, and digital products. The type palette provided by Production Type is a compound of existing off-the-shelf types, new extensions, and previously unseen designs. The main text typeface is Cardinal, a serifed alphabet drawn by Yoann Minet & Quentin Schmerber under Levée’s guidance. Cardinal refers to many classic Jannon-inspired typefaces that were popular in 1990s digital culture, and distantly echoes the ill-fated typeface ITC Garamond. In this way, Cardinal Photo and Cardinal Fruit are two extra sidekicks, reminiscent of an era where the early photocomposition faces were swapped with their electronic counterparts. Stratos, Minet’s own design, while being unreleased at the time, was featured in the layout since the first issue redesigned by the team. Minotaur Lombardic & Proto Slab debuted on the cover of Trax magazine (respectively on issues 185 & 190), too. Existing designs from the Production Type catalog were also put to use across all Trax channels: Minotaur, Minotaur Sans, Minotaur Beef, Countach, and Proto Grotesk, which gained newly drawn weights specifically for the brand. Read more about the project on It’s Nice That and see more pictures on Large website.

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  Cardinal Classic Long Bold + Stratos Black + Proto Grotesk Bold + Proto Slab Bold + Countach Bold + Minotaur Lombardic Bold + Minotaur Beef Bold + Minotaur Sans Bold + Minotaur Beef Bold

  Trax magazine