Les Grandes dates de l’histoire de France
This book published by Éditions De La Martinière Jeunesse is about the important dates in the history of France. The design was commissioned from Léonard Dupond who is known for his specific visual style influenced by etchings. Dupond has made a book previously: Le Livre des chevaliers dont tu es le héros by the Seuil Jeunesse editions. The goal was to illustrate the history of France from Vercingétorix to the march on January 11th, 2015. Léonard Dupont found this task very interesting because of the required diversity of the illustrations. The illustration of the march on January 11th 2015 was chosen for the New Year’s greeting card 2016 of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, and Léonard Dupond made some changes in his artwork on this occasion.
In terms of typography, the cover is interesting because of the use of both Onyx [see comments] and Bodoni Bold Condensed. It highlights vertical lines like the panel hold by Napoléon and it follows the shape of the book. Bodoni Poster is used solely for the dates and its horizontality contrasts very efficiently with the condensed typefaces and the columns of text written in Sabon. Therefore the dates are very visible and for a book about dates, the goal is fulfilled.
New Year’s greeting card 2016 of Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
2 Comments on “Les Grandes dates de l’histoire de France”
It looks like Poster Bodoni Compressed is being used instead of Onyx; the capital G is a dead giveaway.
Well spotted! Thanks, Bryson – fixed.
Pierre, you probably identified Onyx by looking at Bitstream’s font of this name. Confusingly, Onyx BT is not a digitization of Gerry Powell’s Onyx (ATF, 1937), but rather of Poster Bodoni Compressed (Mergenthaler Linotype, 1938). We tag uses of Onyx BT with the latter. See also this comparison.