The Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (ANRT) was created in 1985 by the French Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, with the aim to ‘contribute to the development of type design and typography’. Originally established at Imprimerie Nationale (under the name of Atelier National de Création Typographique, 1985–1996), it was later transferred to École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (1996–1999). Since 2000 ANRT is based at École nationale supérieure d’art et de design (ENSAD) in Nancy. Directed by Peter Keller from 1990 to 2006, it has trained about one hundred researchers and designers, contributing to the dissemination of French type design and typography, and to the structuring of typographic education in schools of art and design.
After a closure of six years, ANRT reopened in October 2012 with a new course director, a new team and a new academic project. It is now an established research unit within the ENSAD Nancy, in the new campus ARTEM (ARt TEchnology Management). It welcomes new postgraduate students every year and brings together experts in the fields of type design and typography. The course develops a singular approach to typographic research, with a strong emphasis on connecting theoretical and practical work, as well as on developing long-term collaborations with world leading research laboratories in other areas, such as linguistics, epigraphy or computer sciences.
Curriculum
Postgraduate research course
ANRT currently offers two kinds of curriculum: a taught ‘post-master’ course, and PhD research programs in partnership with other institutions. The post-master course welcomes students for eighteen months (from October to March), with the aim to develop a self-initiated project dedicated to type or editorial design. They can join a pre-established research programme (2-3 positions for these programmes are opened each year). A strong connection between research and practice is required, and interdisciplinary projects are encouraged. Six students are recruited for each session, who receive an allowance to support their research project. Students meet with the core teaching staff on a weekly basis, and attend a range of seminars and workshops by guest lecturers throughout the year.
In some cases, students who wish to take their research further have the possibility to undertake a PhD in partnership with another research laboratory. Such research programmes are necessarily more ambitious and must aim at providing an original contribution to research. They are co-supervised by ANRT and the partner institutions, and are carried out on the longer term, with PhD students typically working on their project for 36–48 months.
Applicant profile
ANRT is a place of excellence where a specific expertise in typeface design and in editorial design is developed. Its purpose is to support research projects submitted each year by applicants. In addition to self-initiated projects, wider research themes have been defined, to be developed by ANRT on the longer term: they result in specific research programmes relating to these aspects, and are developed with partner institutions. These themes include:
- developing typographical solutions for the needs of academic research (creation of specific alphabets, stabilization of minority scripts or notation systems, development of typographic tools and keyboard layout solutions)
- creating software-related solutions for digital transcription of early imprints (character recognition, encoding, outlines detection, design automation, responsive typography…)
Course structure
The post-master’s provides an outstanding environment for developing research, with the benefit of regular supervision by leading typographic designers. We teach both in French and English.
- Director of typographic research in attendance two days per week
- Regular invited speakers on typography / graphic design
- One-day sessions dedicated to guests and lecturers, visual artists and theorists
- Partnerships with research laboratories and academic departments developing joint research programmes
- Preferential access to documentary and other resources (study trips) offered by ENSAD Nancy
- Some expenses related to research projects may be covered by ANRT
- Presentation and dissemination of students’ work (publications, exhibitions, etc.)
Opportunity for teaching experience: students can lead one workshop each year to ENSAD Nancy’s visual communication students.
Teaching staff
Director
Since the end of his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Besançon and in Madrid, and later at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (2001-2002) Thomas Huot-Marchand has been dividing his time between teaching, typeface design and graphic design. After teaching at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts (Higher Institute of Fine Arts) in Besançon and at the School of Art and Design in Amiens (2002-2011), he was appointed Director of the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (ANRT) in Nancy in 2012. Laureate of a grant supporting artists and designers (Fiacre) in 2003, he was also a resident at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici in 2006-2007. Le Minuscule, a typeface he designed specifically for very small setting, has received many international awards (New York Type Directors Club, Favorite Typefaces of 2007) and has been chosen as one of the ‘Ten Typefaces of the decade’ (Imprint).
Thomas Huot-Marchand is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.
Teachers
Jérémie Hornus is type designer, expert in font production, font engineering and hinting. He studied at the Scriptorium de Toulouse (2000-2004) and the Master of Art in Type Design of the University of Reading (2005-2006). Project manager at Dalton Maag Ltd (2006-2009), and FontYou (2013-2015), he founded Black Foundry in 2016.
Roxane Jubert is a graphic designer, teacher and researcher based in Paris. She teaches at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD, Paris), and at the Université Rennes 2. In her writings, she focuses on graphic design and typography, and their relationship to the visual arts. In 2005, her book Graphisme, Typographie, Histoire, based on her PhD thesis, was published by Flammarion. It has won several awards in France, and was later published in English under the title Typography and Graphic Design: From Antiquity to the Present. She graduated in Graphic Design from ENSAD and Ecole Estienne, and completed her studies at the Atelier National de Création Typographique. In 2004, she obtained a PhD in Art History from the Sorbonne, Université Paris 4.
Jérôme Knebusch divides his time between research, teaching and typographic creation. After graduating at École nationale supérieure d’art de Nancy he continued research at Atelier National de Recherche Typographique and Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main with a DAAD grant. ‹Notizen zu Berlin › a book he both wrote and designed, was awarded the Unesco Book Design Prize 2012 and was shortlisted as part of the Most Beautiful German Books of 2012. His typeface Instant, the result of his research on the differences between handwriting and type design, was published by the BAT type foundry in Paris. Instant has recently been nominated as Favourite Typefaces of 2012 by Fontwerk and Typographica. He lives and works in Frankfurt am Main and teaches at École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine, Metz.
Charles Mazé studied Fine Arts at the University of Rennes 2, graphic design at the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg, and typeface design (MA Type & Media) at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. He collaborates with Coline Sunier since 2008 on book design and publishing projects. Resident at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici in 2014-2015. He lives and works in Brussels.
Émilie Rigaud is the founder of ‘A is for Apple’ (www.aisforapple.fr), a typefoundry based in Paris. After a master’s degree in graphic design at ENSAD in Paris, she joined the MA Typeface Design of the University of Reading (UK) in 2008 where she developed the Coline typeface family, which was awarded the Type Design Prize 2011 of the Tokyo Type Director’s Club. She currently works as a freelance book designer and typeface designer (she notably designed the typeface for the gardens of Singapore ‘Gardens by the Bay’).
Alice Savoie is an independent typeface designer, writer and educator. She studied graphic design and typography in Paris at École Duperré and École Estienne, and in 2006 graduated with a distinction from the MA in typeface design from the University of Reading (UK). She collaborates with international type foundries such as Monotype, Process Type Foundry, and Tiro Typeworks, and has specialised in the design and development of typefaces for editorial and identity purposes. She also designs multi-script type families, including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew. Between 2008 and 2010 Alice joined Monotype as an in-house type designer, working mainly on custom type designs for international clients (The Times, Turner Broadcasting, Ogilvy, etc.). She has also contributed to the design of new typefaces for the Monotype library, such as the Ysobel type family (in collaboration with Robin Nicholas), and Rotis II Sans. Her type family Capucine is distributed by Process Type Foundry. In 2012 she collaborated with John Hudson/Tiro Typeworks over the development of the Brill typeface family for the Dutch publisher Brill. In 2014 she was awarded a PhD from the University of Reading for the research she carried out in collaboration with the Musée de l’imprimerie in Lyon (France). Her research focuses on the design of typeface in France, the UK and the USA in the postwar period, and for phototypesetting technologies in particular.
Alumni
Students
10.2017 — 03.2019
Alexis Faudot, Rémi Forte, Morgane Pierson, Rafael Ribas, Tanguy Vanlaeys, Rosalie Wagner
10.2016 — 03.2018
Gabriele Cepulyte, Montasser Drissi, Arthur Francietta, Clément Le Tulle-Neyret, Camille Trimardeau, Isia Yurovsky
10.2015 — 03.2017
Lucas Descroix, Blondina Elms Pastel, Miklós Ferencz, Pierre Fournier, Sylvain Julé, Corentin Noyer, Sarah Kremer (doct.)
10.2014 — 06.2015
Alice Jauneau, Céline Kriebs, Éloïsa Pérez, Francis Ramel, Mario Vinicius Ribeiro Goncalves, David Vallance, Elvire Volk Leonovitch, Sarah Kremer (doct.)
10.2013 — 06.2014
Sébastien Biniek, Thomas Bouville, Redouan Chetuan, Sarah Kremer, Julian Moncada, Éloïsa Pérez
ANRT 1985–2006
André Baldinger (2000–2006), Jean-Philippe Bazin (1991–2006), Georges Bonnin (1989–1996), Albert Boton (1989–1999), Michel Frétin (1989–1996), André Hatala (1989–1992), Hans Jürg Hunziker (1989–2006), Franck Jalleau (1987–1989), Roxane Jubert (2003–2004), Peter Keller (1985–2006) Ladislas Mandel (1985–1989), José Mendoza y Almeida (1985–1989), Rudi Meyer (1989–1998), Philippe Millot (2000–2006), Muriel Paris (1994–1996), Margo Rouard (1996–1999), Jean Widmer (1996–2006)
1985–1986 Franck Jalleau, Tùng Lâm Ngô
1986–1987
Jean–Renaud Cuaz, Isabelle Durand, Franck Jalleau, Ronan Le Henaff
1987–1988 Jean–Renaud Cuaz, Emanuel Cuny, Isabelle Durand, Ronan Le Henaff
1988–1989 Emanuel Cuny, Michel Derre, Xuan Foucault, Frédérique Gavrilet, Rodolphe Giuglardo, Thierry Puyfoulhoux
1989–1990 Serge Cortesi, Xuan Foucault, Frédérique Gavillet, Rodolphe Giuglardo, Thierry Puyfoulhoux
1990–1991 Jean–Philippe Bazin, Serge Cortesi, Pierre Finot, Bruno Foglia, Margaret Gray, François Leroy, Muriel Paris, Jean–François Porchez
1991–1992 Pascal Domède, Stuart Gluth, Louise Holloway, Maryse Khoraty, François–Marie Mallet, Alexandre Petitmangin, Elisabeth Sprenger
1992–1993
André Baldinger, Marie–Paule Jaulme, Claire Marcel, Philippe Millot, Louise Holloway, Maryse Khoraty, François–Marie Mallet, Alexandre Petitmangin
1993–1994 André Baldinger, Luca Dotti, Sébastien Dragon, Marie–Paule Jaulme, Bérangère Lallemant, Claire Marcel, Didier Mutel
1994–1995 Jean–Luc Chamroux, Sophie Dobrigkeit, Luca Dotti, Sébastien Dragon, Hwayeal Lee, Bérangère Lallemant, Philippe Moubèche, Didier Mutel
1995–1996
Peter Bil’ak, Jean–Luc Chamroux, Isabelle Chêne, David Corvaisier, Cyril Dominger, Ursula Held, Agathe Hondré, Roxane Jubert, Hwayeal Lee, Philippe Moubèche
1996–1997 Agnès Brézéphin, Anne Froment, Bruce Pleiser, Séverine Taillades, Damien Valero, Patricia Voivenel
1997–1998
Arne Freytag, Isabelle Garron, Violette Neyret, Marion Olk, David Poullard, Nadine Raulin, David Smith
1998–1999 Johanna Balusikovâ, Anne–Lise Broyer, Kéthévane Cellard, Thierry Rivière, Gregori Vincens
2000–2001 François Chastanet, Alessandro Colizzi, Alejandro Lo Celso, Paule Palacios–Dalens, Leonardo Vazquez Conde
2001–2002 Caroline Alcalay, Céline Delage, Yoan De Roeck, Olivier Gebelin, Thomas Huot–Marchand
2002–2003 Thomas Braichet, Sébastien Gouju, Laurent Kuhni, Stéphanie Sagot, Delian Simeonov
2003–2004 Lara Assouad Khoury, Alice Bénusiglio, Céline Gillier, Sébastien Gouju, Laurent Kuhni, Sidonie Mangin, Olivier Marcellin
2004–2005 Bruno Bernard, Grégory Bouchier, Jean–Philippe Cléau, Romain Ladame, Antoine Lechartier, Shiwen Wang
2005–2006 Matthieu Cortat, Marco Godinho, Jérôme Knebusch, Elamine Maecha, David Studer
Contact
Address
Atelier National de Recherche Typographique
École nationale supérieure d’art et de design de Nancy
1 place Charles Cartier-Bresson
BP 13129
54013 Nancy CEDEX
France
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Credits
Support
L’Atelier National de Recherche Typographique est un 3e cycle de l’École nationale supérieure d’art de Nancy. Il est soutenu par le Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, la Métropole du Grand Nancy, la Région Grand Est, le Fonds Européen de Développement Régional (FEDER PO 2013) et l’Alliance ARTEM.
Credits
Writing: Thomas Huot-Marchand
Typeface: Instant Regular & Slow, Jérôme Knebusch
Design: Gwenaël Fradin