Inner Bloom is the holistic health and acupuncture practice of neurosurgeon Julia Reinhart in Vienna. Studio Grund created the practice's visual identity intertwining “these themes of blossoming, balance, and holistic wellbeing”.

From Studio Grund’s case study:

Floral elements are woven into the unique logo typeface, its elegant, modern look influencing the overall typography. Fonts were carefully selected to balance character with delicacy and femininity, while the signet draws inspiration from nature to symbolize the connection from root to head, as well as the concept of equilibrium

The wordmark is set in NaN Success Titling, all in lowercase. STK Hugo (Smuss Type Kiosk) and Francesco (Production Type) bring different but complementary organic and soft notes to the typography palette, an interesting mix of three separate serif typefaces for the main typography. General Type’s Mier B completes the palette as a contrasting geometric sans used sparingly for more utilitarian contents, and maybe a dose of serious.

Bringing together an East Asian drink with Western European Renaissance writing might appear audacious. But in fact it turns out to be an intercultural love match where “craftsmanship” is the core value.

Breathing Tea is a small business based in Hong Kong that fully focusses on producing all sorts of Kombucha tea. As of fall 2024 the firm is represented in six places across Hong Kong and offers an online shop. Name and website of the brand make it clear that the purpose of the enterprise is to offer mindfully handcrafted brews, following the centuries-old tradition.

And it is here where you can see how well the chosen typeface fits in: Francesco was designed by Franck Jalleau on the basis of early Italian Renaissance printing, especially from the presses of Aldus Manutius. The typeface’s name pays tribute to Francesco Griffo who was the punchcutter of Manutius and is seen as one of the central figures in transforming Humanist calligraphy into typography.

Instead of copy-pasting recurring elements of type design, like for instance the serifs, Franck Jalleau strived to emulate the spirit of early punchcutting craftsmanship and to individually balance each letter in its own right, leading to more variation in those details.

Yet Francesco is not a mere revival, but a contemporary take on the Renaissance topic. Most noticeable are certainly the filled black counters of a and e, a characteristic that makes the typeface recognizable and therefore suitable for identity projects. Francesco comes with a variety of stylistic alternates and also provides full Greek and Cyrillic character sets. It was published by Production Type in 2017.

That same year appeared the geometric Halcyon by Jonathan Gibson, the complementary face used on the website of Breathing Tea.

Francesco is used with ample letterspacing. In the logotype, the letter i is represented by the dot only. The compact logo version combines a single letter B (modified to have one open counter) with that floating dot.

Social media typography doesn’t have to be loud or sloppy: a customer testimonial is carefully set using Francesco in roman, italic and small caps, with a discretionary st ligature and hanging punctuation

Box set with two bottles of tea

Homepage

Flavor selection menu

Product page

Kombucha in the making

Le livre écarlate (“the scarlet book”) is a generalist independent bookshop located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Serge Cortesi designed the identity. The logotype and the information on the bookmark are set in Francesco, combining the easily recognizable lowercase and uppercase letters.

The same logotype is also displayed on the front of the bookstore since at least 2008, according to Google Street View pictures.

The shop front in 2008

French studio Maison Solide designed this visual identity – and stamps! – for Murs à fleurs, a flower farm in Montreuil (France) that sells seasonal plants.

A funny fact is: the material for the communication of the brand is bringing together the Trabis font, designed by Axel Pelletanche Thévenart, and the Francesco font, designed by his former teacher, Franck Jalleau – reuniting two generations of typeface designers in one identity.

Bio Cohérence is a private certification mark, introduced in 2010 in France to label organic food which is produced and distributed to a set of demanding standards.

The logotype features the organic shapes of Francesco. The soft serif with the distinctive closed “eye” in e was designed by Franck Jalleau, taking inspiration from Venetian faces of the 15th century. Released in 2010, it was immediately picked up by Bio Cohérence and can since be seen on farmer’s markets and grocery stores across France, signalling organic food of top-notch quality.

Francesco is also used as the display face for the website, newsletters, leaflets, and other material by Bio Cohérence – in roman and italic styles.

The motto in all caps features Francesco’s Q with the long tail, revealing its Renaissance roots.

Hélène Marian together with Doc Levin redesigned the programs issued by the French National Renaissance Museum since 2014. They are all set with a colored (or reversed) Francesco, which turns out to be inspired by types cut in the Renaissance.

The typography is very refined: alternates ‘a’ & ‘e’ are used (with open counterforms rather than obstructed ones). So are discretionary ligatures, oldstyle figures and the rarely seen fleurons.

See more pictures on the websites of Hélène Marian and Doc Levin.

This little book, following John Smith’s solo exhibition at the Royal College of Art in 2010, was designed by French duo SA*M*AEL (Samuel Bonnet & Maël Fournier-Comte) using the same pair of typefaces that they used for exhibition identity and signage: Francesco, Frank Jalleau’s masterpiece inspired by Griffo’s cuts from Renaissance (and at the time freshly released by BAT) and Gemeli Mono, Jean-Baptiste Levée’s monospace counterpart to his Gemeli type system, several years before its release.

Beside the simple aesthetic of the publication, the typesetting of the book is very subtle and reminiscent of some early trends of the early 2010s: monospace type for body text, underlines, loose letterspacing … all of this probably echoing the Web 1.0 look that was already considered as old-fashionned.

Invitation for the exhibition at RCA.