Mercredi is a text-optimized serif font that is a revival of a French typeface that originates from Paris in the mid-1800's!
F E A T U R E S :
A little backstory...
I'm currently enrolled in the TypeWest program through the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. For the fall trimester of Type West 2019-2020, we were asked to create a revival font from a book that was printed with metal type.
After scouring many book stores, I finally found one at the Friends Bookstore in Fort Mason. I walked in and chatted with the cashier, then she showed me where the older books were. She pulled out this book in French and handed to me. I immediately checked the date and was excited to see that it was the right time period. I made a small stack of books but ultimately landed on this one. It is a catalog of all the people involved in the French Revolution. It was written by Armand Brette, a historian specializing in French History. The book was published in 1897 and several reprints followed. One of the reasons I was drawn to this book was the quality of the paper and printing. It is obvious that great care went into the production of it.
Mercredi originates from the Turlot Fonderie. A big Paris-based foundry, with an extensive factory. In 1880, they had acquired the Fonderie Charles Derriey. Their major specimen book, Specimen general de la fonderie Turlot, indicates that the foundry was sold to Henri Chaix in 1910. The foundry seemed to focus on serif fonts designed for text sizes. The additional weights for Mercredi in the original book vary in weight and design. Great care is taken to ensure that each weight is legible at each size. With my revival, I focused on legibility at small sizes to carry on the original craft of the Turlot foundry.
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