loire: 12 of 20

I wish I knew more about Jean Lochu and his work, for he created, in my opinion, two of the more elegant, well-designed faces of the late 1990s. His Selune, in which the influences of Grandjean and Firmin Didot appear to shine through, was developed in 1998 and is replete with Greek and Cyrillic versions. And Loire, released in the previous year, conveys the spirit of two other French printers and punchcutters – that of Fournier in the Roman and Granjon in the italic.

But Lochu is no mere interpreter of his predecessors, nor does he intend to be. That he is a calligrapher by training is apparent in Loire; the highly drawn, hybrid numerals, the extended, abrupt serifs, and the unusually high dots on i and j are just a few of the features that distinguish it. Loire and Selune are both available through Agfa-Monotype.

25-October 2002