Plain Form

🔴📖 OUT NOW → Plain Text 3, the third issue of our publication for exploratory type design

From fiction to theory, from mystical analyses to visual works, Plain Text explores typographic imaginaries, moving beyond a strictly historical and technical framework, with a taste for the unknown and the dormant potential of writing.

Get yours on text.plain-form.com (link in bio).

Content
• “Cultivate margins” → Benjamin Dumond on typography as a multiple practice (@dumond.benjamin ) • “Fried egg” → Eugénie Bidaut on legibility, inclusivity and odd contrast methods (@eugbidaut ) • “Their XYZ, our ABC” → Luther R. Marsh frames letters as humble forms with world-shaping force. • “Playing the alphabet” → Three type design projects tuned to rhythm, drums, and improvisation (@shespoke2me @_sim.lo @malin.neamtzu ) • “Double vision” → Eyes, letters and society: Thomas Huot-Marchand on Émile Javal (@thomashuotmarchand ) • “(a poem)” → Alex Balgiu explores the visual grammar of ornament (@designingwriting ) • “Alphabetic journeys” → Conversation with Johanna Drucker on the life and magic of alphabets. • “Leave meaning behind?” → Asemic writing and the play of absence, by Gabriele Čepulytė (@gabriele_cep ) • “Inscrypted” → Strokes and whispers of unseen worlds, collected by Hélène Marian (@helene_marian ) • “Marks, signs, stories” → In the shadows of alphabets: Lucas Descroix roams with Marc Pessin (@lucasdescroix ) • “Living entities” → In Mankun Guo’s work, type stirs, shifts, and takes shape (@mankun_gd ) • “Traditions and treachery” → Ariel Martín Pérez reflects on absent letters in the Canary Islands. • “Missing sign” → Stories with bits of letters inside: new fictions from Plain Form.

- Bilingual publication (English + French)
- 210 × 297mm, 80 pages
- Offset printing on Munken Print White


This issue was kindly sponsored by @fonderieabyme @blazetype @abcdinamo @djrrb @klim_type_foundry Rosetta @tdfoundry @xyz_type .
Thanks to our contributors and proof-readers, all who preordered and spread the word, and see you for Plain Text 4.

— #typedesign #typography #magazine #plainformgoods #plaintext

Plain Form is now open — head over to @plain_form and plain-form.com! It features revised-and-expanded version of some of my existing typefaces, as well as a couple of new ones, including an exciting collaboration with @dumond.benjamin . I wrote a few words about Plain Form, its launch and some ideas and wishes for the future. You’ll find that in the Texts section. And I’ll be posting more details in the coming days, about the catalogue, the website and such things. But for now, time to dive head-first into letterforms! — I also wanted to note that, like most things in life, Plain Form wouldn’t have happened without the help, advice and support from others. So, big thanks to (in no particular order) @mass.driver , @margot.leveque , @nan_xyz , @lifttype , @abcdinamo , @gergo_kokai , @djrrb , @tomconroy , @futurefonts , @elenorkopka , @dumond.benjamin .

🟢📖 OUT NOW → Plain Text 2, the second issue of our publication for exploratory type design From fiction to theory, from mystical analyses to visual works, Plain Text explores typographic imaginaries, moving beyond a strictly historical and technical framework, with a taste for the unknown and the dormant potential of writing. Get yours on text.plain-form.com (link in bio). Content • “Writing Beyond the Latin Empire” → Tim Brookes from Endangered Alphabets (@endangeredalphas ) explores the alterity of writing systems. • “Of metal and mold” → Non-static letters from Aliona Ciobanu (@alyunkka ) and Alec Vivier-Reynaud (@alecvivierreynaud ). • “Emergent realities” → Inner dialogue from the collective behind the Inscript festival (@inscript.tf ). • “Serif Obscura” → Benjamin Dumond (@dumond.benjamin ) looks at cinema for typographic concepts. • “Constellating typography” → A dialectic view on type design by Marcus Leis Allion (@marcus.leis.allion ). • “Sever the signal” → Simon Renaud (@smnrnd ) creates a dialogue between inspirations and research. • “Droplets” → A short fiction by Mardi Forestier (@mardiforestier ), where variations infuse meaning (feat. Exposure by @federicoparrabarrios ). • “Express Exegesis” → Reading intentions and building bridges between typefaces (with letters from @theletters.co , @phaedra.xyz , @ohnotypeco , @bureau_brut ). • “Expanding territories” → Conversation with Hervé Aracil: teaching, invention and Gilles Deleuze. • “Risky pedagogy” → Exploratory works from HAW Hamburg (@display_pantograph ), with Pierre Pané-Farré. • “Ants, spiders and bees” → Different ways of dealing with historical sources by Lucas Descroix (@lucasdescroix ). 
- Bilingual publication (English + French) - 210 × 297mm, 80 pages - Offset printing on Munken Print White
 This issue was kindly sponsored by @abcdinamo , @commercialtype , @cstmfonts , @futurefonts , @xyz_type , @205tf . Thanks to our contributors and proof-readers, all who preordered and spread the word (big up @blazetype ), and see you for Plain Text 3. (Slide 4, bottom left, shows work by Aliona Ciobanu and Stefania Bodnia @stefabodnia .) — #typedesign #typography #magazine #plainformgoods #plaintext #plainform

📝⏰ NEW ARTICLE → ‘Mystery, Michaux and Mystic‘ by @dumondbenjamin Our printed specimen for Benjamin Dumond’s typeface Michaux is now out of print, and to celebrate we’ve just added the essay to our website for everyone to enjoy. — The text explores the origins of Michaux as both a typeface and an attempt to approach writing through mystery rather than control. Drawing from Henri Michaux’s experiments with signs, asemic writing, and altered perception, the project treats letters as unstable forms suspended between abstraction and legibility. Built through generative processes and subjective selection, Michaux embraces fragility, inconsistency, and ambiguity. — Michaux, released in 2024, is available in 3 styles (Light, Regular, Bold). — #type #typography #typedesign #plainform #michauxtypeface

📓🔮 NEW BOOK → ‘Missing sign‘ by @lucasdescroix — Five short stories with pieces of letters inside. Entirely set in our upcoming typeface Ferro (coming rrreal soon). — ‘Missing sign’ is a collection of short stories that linger where language begins to falter and letters slip from certainty into doubt. Moving between future obsolescence, unexpected discoveries, and quiet rebellions, ‘Missing sign’ watches what happens when the signs we rely on start to flicker. — Available now on our shop (link in bio). — • English • 72 pages, 108×160mm • offset print • November 2025 • ISBN 978-2-9597254-2-5 — #typography #typedesign #book #bookcover #shortstories #plainform #plainformgoods

Michaux • 3 styles design by @dumond.benjamin — “Like a profile spotted in the clouds or in the traces left by woodworms, Michaux was not created so much as it was found. Selected out of thousands of computer-generated three-stroke signs, this typeface not only proposes a radical process and a stand on the role of the designer, it offers a visual system that is as wild as it is coherent. Reminiscent of dynamic handwritten styles, Michaux leaves all preconceived rules behind. It is a balancing act of freedom and stability, abstraction and legibility, that makes for an expressive and ever-surprising typeface, yielding a sort of impressive spirit that only chaos is capable of.” — #type #typography #typedesign #typefacedesign #typeface #fonts #fontdesign #graphicdesign #typeverything #goodtype #design #tomorrow_featured #itsnicethat #designfeed #typophilia #eyeondesign #icographica #typeindex #thetypist #typegoodness #type01 #contemporarytype #brandidentity #plainform #michauxtypeface

Plain Text 2 🟢📖 Focus n.11 “Ants, Spiders and Bees” → Different ways of dealing with historical sources by Lucas Descroix. — Using three animal metaphors, this short essay examines distinct approaches to engaging with historical material in type design. Archiving, weaving, and pollinating become models for how designers collect, transform, and transmit references from the past. Rather than treating history as a fixed repository, the text frames it as an active terrain shaped by interpretation, bias, and intent. — Plain Text a semi-annual publication for exploratory type design. This second issue was published by type foundry Plain Form in July 2025. Read more and order on text.plain-form.com (link in bio). — #typedesign #graphicdesign #typography #magazine #plainformgoods #plaintext #plainform #readytypeface

Plain Text 2 🟢📖 Focus n.10 “Risky Pedagogy” → Exploratory works from HAW Hamburg, with Pierre Pané-Farré. — This contribution presents a series of student works developed within a pedagogical framework that values uncertainty, experimentation, and failure. Guided by Pierre Pané-Farré, these projects challenge conventional outcomes and assessment criteria, foregrounding process over polish. The selection reveals education as a site of risk-taking, where typography becomes a tool for inquiry and speculation rather than mastery, and where learning unfolds through exposure to instability. — Plain Text a semi-annual publication for exploratory type design. This second issue was published by type foundry Plain Form in July 2025. Read more and order on text.plain-form.com (link in bio). — #typedesign #graphicdesign #typography #magazine #plainformgoods #plaintext #plainform

In use: Ready — FOLIA – PAGINE DI BIODIVERSITÀ URBANA is a project of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of Politecnico di Milano within the framework of the NBFC – National Biodiversity Future Center @department.dastu.polimi @nbfc_italy FOLIA publishes research, projects, and critical essays dedicated to urban biodiversity, adopting the perspective of the disciplines involved in the transformation of space and the environment. Editorial Manager Francesca Zanotto @francescazanotto_ @mchpastore @jacopoleveratto @annaritalap @chiara.geroldi Graphic design @obelo_milano giuliabe__ Photo @francescospallacci Typefaces in use: Ready Active and Ready Clouded by @plain_form Exposure by @205tf Gaisyr Mono by @abcdinamo — You've used or encountered a Plain Form typeface? I'd love to hear about it! — #type #typography #typedesign #typefacedesign #typeface #fonts #fontdesign #graphicdesign #layout #bookdesign #plainform #plainforminuse #readytypeface

Paraiso • 7 styles design by @lucasdescroix — Paraiso is a condensed display typeface with a constructed feel. Although influenced by 19th and early-20th century wood faces, Paraiso's design is a fantasised reconstruction, straying away from nostalgia and precise historical references. Evoking a set of building cubes, this display typeface finds warmth in the regularity and somewhat comforting tightness of its rhythm. The Paraiso family is coherent but not linear. It was designed as a limited but versatile palette for striking headlines or poster layouts, its blocky letterforms naturally calling for compact leading and big sizes. — #type #typography #typedesign #typefacedesign #typeface #fonts #fontdesign #graphicdesign #typeverything #goodtype #design #tomorrow_featured #itsnicethat #designfeed #typophilia #eyeondesign #icographica #typeindex #thetypist #typegoodness #type01 #contemporarytype #brandidentity #plainform #paraisotypeface

Plain Text 2 🟢📖 Focus n.9 “Expanding Territories” → Conversation with Hervé Aracil on teaching, invention, and Gilles Deleuze. — In this conversation, Hervé Aracil reflects on pedagogy as a space of experimentation rather than transmission. Drawing on philosophical concepts, particularly those of Gilles Deleuze, the discussion explores how teaching can foster invention, displacement, and conceptual risk. Typography and design education are framed as practices that expand territories—intellectual, formal, and institutional—by resisting fixed outcomes and embracing open-ended processes. — Plain Text a semi-annual publication for exploratory type design. This second issue was published by type foundry Plain Form in July 2025. Read more and order on text.plain-form.com (link in bio). — #typedesign #graphicdesign #typography #magazine #plainformgoods #plaintext #plainform #michauxtypeface

Plain Text 2 🟢📖 Focus n.8 “Express Exegesis” → Reading intentions and building bridges between typefaces. — Exegesis is a method of analysis that goes beyond the stated purpose of an object or its author, extrapolating and multiplying interpretations in the hope of revealing hidden meanings. Applied to typography, exegesis becomes an thought experiment that helps us to identify what attracts us to certain atypical typefaces and to conceptualize what they might express. The aim is to expand the typographic imagination and inspire future typefaces. Featuring works from @theletters.co , @phaedra.xyz , @ohnotypeco and @bureau_brut . — Plain Text a semi-annual publication for exploratory type design. This second issue was published by type foundry Plain Form in July 2025. Read more and order on text.plain-form.com (link in bio). — #typedesign #graphicdesign #typography #magazine #plainformgoods #plaintext #plainform