Paris Paradis

Paris Paradis is the name of an annual open-air festival held since 2018 in the Parc de la Villette in the northeast of Paris. It was initiated by Le Parisien, the leading daily newspaper of the French capital when it comes to paid journalism. The festival spans over a weekend from Friday to Sunday and unfolds between two stages dedicated to music performances and the “Cabaret Sauvage” reserved for French humorists. The program and the many activities between the stages are deliberately eclectic: paradise has to offer a space for everyone.

Since its beginnings Paris Paradis uses the combination of a script for “Paris” and modernist all-caps for “Paradis”. This combination is actually reminiscent of French letter painting after 1950. While the script is probably an individual lettering piece based on House Script, the word “Paradis” uses a bichromatic setting of Acier.

Commissioned by Charles Peignot of the famous Deberny & Peignot foundry in Paris, Acier was originally designed by A.M. Cassandre in the 1930s. Yes, that Cassandre. The metal type family had two members, Acier Noir (black) and Acier Gris (gray, filled with thin strokes) that were meant to be printed in two colors on top of each other – If you will, a modular system allowing for many different effects in print.

Being the first to revive Acier for the digital era, Jean-Baptiste Levée not only studied closely the printed specimens but also decided to pick up on the inherent modularity and carry it further. He broke the whole design down into its elemental parts (solid, outlines, strokes) and made them into single fonts that you can recombine at will. This way he extended on Cassandre’s typeface. The digital Acier is available in two optical sizes from Production Type.