Commentary

A Nice Sunday Diversion:
Tracking Xavier Dupré

Yves Peters on May 14, 2005

Hot on the heels of the Font Bureau release Zingha comes Vista Sans, another new typeface by up-and-coming French type designer Xavier Dupré, released through Emigre. As I reviewed his Zingha for my Bald Condensed column less than a month ago and there are so many other type designers I still have to cover, I decided to follow up on Stephen’s three-year-old entry and do a chronological round-up of Xavier’s output.

Creation dates are between square brackets.

FF Parango [98-01], FF Reminga [00-01] / FontFont, Oct 2001
FF Tartine Script, FF Jambono [00-01] / FontFont, May 2002
FF Angkoon [01-02] / FontFont, Jul 2003 (TDC Award)
Spotka, Meteor [02-03] / T26, Jan 2004 (Z-series fonts)
FF Absara [03-04] / FontFont, Nov 2004 (TDC Award)
Zingha [00-02] / The Font Bureau, Inc., Mar 2005
Vista Sans [04-05] / Emigre, May 2005
FF Absara Sans [04] / FontFont, July 2005

The ATypI 98 publication “Lettres françaises” features “Humanix”, one of his unreleased projects. Other unreleased typefaces are two khmer fonts, commissioned in 2003 and 2004 by NGOs in Cambodia.

The score: 4 years, 4 foundries. Keep an eye on that man.

5 Responses to “A Nice Sunday Diversion:
Tracking Xavier Dupré”

Stephen Coles says:

05.15.05 at 12:12 pm

Good call, Yves. I was just thinking that Xavier and Christian — both young designers with works in several foundries — have followed a similar path.

I also congratulate you on posting Typographica’s 1000th article.
Troubleman says:

05.15.05 at 3:44 pm

Does this mean I get a prize like on MyFonts? :)
Fredrik Andersson says:

05.16.05 at 3:19 am

Would a group hug be inappropriate?

�
Stephen Coles says:

06.05.05 at 3:17 pm

Not at all.
Claudio Piccinini says:

11.30.05 at 4:48 am

I don’t like so much Vista Sans, but Absara is very nice, and Zingha is wonderful, although maybe its Italic has too much character for regular book textsetting. A new serif with the balance of Vista would be amazing.