Roger Excoffon et la fonderie Olive

People are always asking us for this book. So many people have asked that we stopped keeping a list. There was not enough paper to keep track of all the names. So, if you asked about it, forgive us. We just figured we’d never get one. Now, Roger Excoffon (1910–1983) was a major figure in French typography, the graphic arts, and visual communication. Most of the typefaces that he designed for the Olive foundry in Marseilles between 1945 and 1971 with the active support of his director Marcel Olive and his assistants (José Mendoza y Almeida, Gérard Blanchard) became classics of advertising printing. These typefaces took over the storefronts and urban space of France and beyond. They can still be seen today: we have all come across Banco, an alphabet of brawny and dynamic capitals, or Mistral, a successful adaptation of the handwriting of the “man of the 20th century.” This book celebrates a work of uncommon popularity and draws on little-known or previously unpublished documentary material (texts, drawings, photographs, advertisements, specimens, etc.). It highlights Excoffon’s personal approach, which found its inspiration in the pictorial arts as well as the social sciences, while meeting the imperatives of the typographic industry. The history of the Olive foundry is told here for the first time: each typeface is presented individually, analyzed and illustrated. A coveted book and an invaluable resource.