Memoire typeface is a digital tribute to movable type

Fueled by tea, Michelle Ando creates works based on her interest in the intersection of mind and technology. Ryan Bugden is a graphic & type designer living and working in New York City. When those two came together, Memoire was born. The custom headline typeface designed for the fifth issue of Sub Rosa’s biannual publication La Petite Mort reflects this issue’s theme of memory. Ryan and Michelle began by ideating different typographic representations of memory befitting a print publication and La Petite Mort’s tonality. They looked to the early days of type when the act of printing yielded a transformation not unlike the distortion of a memory. Out of this, they sought to create some kind of experience for La Petite Mort’s readers. The two were intrigued by the possibility of a typeface that changes with each “use,” but its actual form had yet to be determined. For inspiration, they looked to the letterforms of De Vinne, a typeface cut in the late nineteenth century by Gustav Schroeder. This typeface felt old-fashioned and had the sharpness needed to make the transformation apparent. An aim of Memoire was to treat sharp features more consistently in order to make its transformation feel uniform across each character. Sharpness dulls, and corners fill in. The headlines’ transformation throughout the publication is something the readers sense before they fully discover, adding another layer of depth to this issue’s theme.

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