TMR Jazz, Théâtre Montreux Riviera

Festival Texte Musique Rythme Jazz is “a new festival to discover the texts that are part of the jazz universe: songs, poems, literature, biographies …” The first edition took place in June 2018 and explored the worlds of Boris Vian, Vinicius de Moraes, Billie Holiday, Henri Salvador, Ray Charles.

For the poster and the cover of the program booklet, Marina Taurus and Jeanpascal Février used a water color by French painter Camille Saint-Jacques titled LIV 280. In terms of typography, this printed matter represents an early use of Faune, a fascinating typeface family of unusual structure, designed by Alice Savoie (frenchtype) and released in three Display (Thin, Bold Italic, Black) and three Text styles (Regular, Italic, Bold). It was commissioned by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP) in partnership with the Groupe Imprimerie Nationale and made available earlier this year under Creative Commons licence. Savoie:

[Faune Bold Italic] is based on a remarkable specimen of black ibis found in the Description de l’Égypte, chosen for the very characteristic undulation of its neck and the unique distribution of its mass between a heavy body and skinny legs. The modulation of the curves and counters of this variant, along with an unusual contrast between its thicks and thins, produce a vibration to which the eye is unaccustomed, but one that makes a very real impression. Isn’t this what the italic aspires to do, all too often considered as the subordinate of the roman?

It’s a pity the designers only used Faune’s signature italics with the flamy strokes, and resorted to boring old Helvetica for the rest. I would have loved to see the full Faune family in action!