SALON

Wednesday, Apr 11, 2012 12:00 AM UTC

Writing in 3-D

A French designer brings a breathing dimensionality to his typography work

By

Topics: Imprint, Design, ,

Writing in 3-DFrom Jarjaja, a project with the Lebanese graphic designer Lara Captan, mixing Latin and Arabic typography, 2008-2010
This article originally appeared on Imprint. It's part of Print magazine's annual New Visual Artist series that profiles 20 of the most promising rising talents around the world in the fields of graphic design, advertising, illustration, digital media, photography and animation.

ImprintLooking at Jerome Corgier’s type sculptures, with their suggestive, amorphous shapes, can be a bit like gazing at clouds. In his love for pure typography, Corgier often strips down forms until their meaning loosens. Letters “immediately lose their signification when you play with them,” he says, “and with that I can open a new place to play.”

Age: 28
Type and graphic designer
From: Montreuil, France 
Lives in: Montreuil, France
Website: www.behance.net/jeromecorgier

With little more than a sharp blade, geometric creases, and an architect’s sense of three-dimensionality, Corgier can transform a piece of fiber into something expressive, as with his blog’s “Daily Emotion With Paper” series, which uses thin curlicues and cuts of colored paper to represent his mood. “I feel that all those paper forms have a big emotional content,” Corgier says. “They are very simple, but in fact they are essential. I play with contrasts of colors. I’m working on the gesture to draw letters, the liberty of movement.” In time, he says, the studies will become a larger typographic project.

From Jarjaja, a project with the Lebanese graphic designer Lara Captan, mixing Latin and Arabic typography, 2008-2010

From Jarjaja, a project with the Lebanese graphic designer Lara Captan, mixing Latin and Arabic typography, 2008-2010

Born in Montreuil, the Paris suburb where he still lives, Corgier studied science before enrolling in art school. (He now designs the local government’s communications materials.) In 2008, he opened his own studio, Atelier Pariri, where his clients include the New Republic and Louis Vuitton. For the New York Times’ style magazine, T, he crafted a gothic title letter out of layers of black and white paper that absolutely undulate to the eye.

That kind of breathing dimensionality has become integral to his work. In his early typographic-sculpture experiments, he says, “I worked the structure, the skeleton.” (The undersides of some of Corgier’s objects reveal bits of wood used to prop up the layers of paper.) “Now I work with the skin, with surfaces. My sculptures now are lighter ― they are flying.”

Experimental research in sculptural typography, 2008-2011

Experimental research in sculptural typography, 2008-2011

Experimental research in sculptural typography, 2008-2011

Experimental research in sculptural typography, 2008-2011

Corgier speaks French, English, and a bit of German, and he is familiar with the Arabic alphabet. “I mostly love forms,” he says, “and with forms I discover the different languages. It permits me to be free.” Next up, Corgier hopes to study Chinese, Japanese, and Greek ― new sets of characters, and new worlds, to explore.


See the other 2012 NVA winners:

Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2012.

Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine, America’s oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint advances and expands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among its members.

More Jane Lerner.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine, America's oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint

advances and expands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among its members.

Continue Reading

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations