Yesterday, I publicly launched the new pivot of Poet & Scribe, a design systems & product strategy consultancy.
Next, I want to go through the colophon and explain the various decisions through the process—acting like a sort-of-case-story.
Together
Bricolage Grotesque
A free and open source variable font with French attitude and British mannerisms across 3 axis: weight, width & optical size.
The Font's Story
Bricolage Grotesque is a blend of historical sources, technical decisions and personal feelings. It started as a fork of Mayenne Sans, an open-source single weight font designed by Jérémy Landes. It evolved by reinforcing cues from French sources, namely Antique Olive, and British sources, more obviously from the Grotesque series by Stephenson Blake. Using modern aesthetics and technology, it aims to traverse an emotional landscape that stretches back to my grandfather crossing the ‘Méditerranée’ and ends with my own experience as a Frenchman living in England for over a decade.
Bricolage is French for improvising something you need by combining or repurposing readily available materials and Bricolage Grotesque is so steeped in historical sources and references that it’s hard to call it anything else. It’s a re-interpretation of existing ideas but for a different purpose: trying to visually express what it feels like to move countries and rebuild, what it feels like to have a hybrid identity where you cannot be what you were and yet you can never truly be anybody else.
Bricolage Grotesque is designed by me, Mathieu Triay (1989 —). This typeface is dedicated to my grandfather, Edgard Triay (1928 — 2010).
The Specimen Site
