One of the contradictions in typography and type design is between the anonymous and the noticeable. The struggle between making things that are without any taste that leave the message unnoticed and making things that are too flavorful and swamp the message with an overwhelming taste. It always comes as a delight to find something that has real flavor, yet seems entirely appropriate.
Of all the typefaces of the past few years, Infini (designed by the graphic and type designer Sandrine Nugue) is one of the best examples of a new typeface that fits into this category. Nugue shows the continuing renaissance of French type design; Infini, designed for the National Centre for Visual Arts on the occasion of “Graphisme en France 2014”, seems to reflect an incredible Gallic sophistication, which we might associate with masters like Roger Excoffon. Showing also the influence of Wolpe’s Albertus, Infini is an audacious typeface, managing to capture the spontaneity of the hand and craft that type design so often boils away to the bland.
Ganeau, Nugue’s first design completed at Ésad in Amiens, showed great promise and potential, and Infini delivers on this. (Ganeau in its caption form is clearly a precursor to Infini.) It is a typeface that shows a designer confident in her talents and her freedom to express ideas. As a design, it truly deserves the highest compliment. We wish we had designed it.
