Peignot (1937)
Whilst A.M. Cassandre is most well known for his poster designs, he was also a successful typeface designer. He was commissioned by the French foundry Deberny & Peignot to create this typeface. The company themselves were an institution and lead the way in french typography for more than 50 years.
Cassandre took inspiration from two main sources, the Bauhaus movement and some Medieval text. He was looking to create something as new, exciting and different as the likes of these Bauhaus designs of 10 years before but didn’t know where to start. Then he came across a a medieval half-uncial calligraphy which had a mix of upper and lowercase letters being used for the lower case. He took this idea and used it to create the unusual typeface with the combination of letters which was the first of its kind as a typeface.
This sans-serif typeface uses a combonation of differently weighted lines within each letter, showing the influence of its calligraphic roots. There is a clear contrast between the uppercase and “lowercase”. In the lowercase, the corners are rounded off like in Bayer’s Universal typeface, but in the uppercase, they have distinct coners with straight edges (look at the difference in “W”). Looking at the numbers in the typeface, there is a greater similarity to Futura in their shapes but each shape is still rounded in a way which references Universal. The other stand out element of this typeface (aside from the “multi-case”) is the elongated ascenders and descenders which allows words to still have a distinct shape. It’s used very well in the example of “h” which is an uppercase letterform but by elongating only one ascender it changes back to having a similar form to a traditional lowercase.
Cassandre has combined all of these complex, contrasting elements to create an exciting and varied typeface with a unique personality. It feels nostalgic and glamorous due to its association with advertising from the 1940s. It also has a quite playful and dynamic quality thanks to it’s unique combination of the “mixed-case” and elongated ascenders and descenders.
The initial use of this typeface was quite high during the 40s after its release, particularly in advertising and publishing. Soon however, this decorative style typeface went out of fashion and its usage was minimal. It came back in the in the 70s, most famously for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
The typeface is very rarely used in recent times, and has become an interesting piece of history more than anything. However, when used in the right context it can be shown off as not only an effective typeface, but a very interesting piece of design in its own right.
