Optimo

François Rappo revives the work of Jean Jannon through this meticulous study of a quintessential seventeenth-century French type. JJannon’s letters reflect the sense of grandeur and attention to detail that defined the Baroque era.

Swiss-born, Jean Jannon worked at the Estienne printing atelier in Paris before escaping to Sedan, France to flee the Protestant Reformation. He then found employment as a printer for the Calvinist Academy where he began to cut his own letters. In 1641, he received a commission from the Imprimerie Royale in Paris, a project from which Caractères de l’Université originated. For nearly three hundred years, Jannon’s letters were misattributed to Claude Garamond. It was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that the eminent scholar Beatrice Warde would rectify this inaccuracy.

This contemporary version of JJannon highlights this historical saga. Rappo masterfully reinvigorates its distinctive elegance and sharpness by preserving the asymmetrical axis, the small inclined bowl of the “a,” and the detailed cupped serifs from the original drawings.

JJannon
8 styles

Regular
Italic
Book
Book Italic
Bold
Bold Italic
Extrabold
Extrabold Italic

JJannon Display
8 styles

Display Light
Display Light Italic
Display Regular
Display Italic
Display Bold
Display Bold Italic
Display Extrabold
Display Extrabold Italic