Les Avrils

Les Avrils is a publishing house launched in January 2021. Its editorial direction is to publish French contemporary literature that tells stories of our time. Avril is the French word for April, the month of spring and sowings, the time of the year when everything begins, and is representative of a publishing house dedicated to publish young authors.

The identity was created by Atelier 25 and gives a fresh boost to editorial canons of literature: the covers, displaying a diversity of Pantone colors, step out of the majority of editorial propositions by their simplicity and colorful impact. The horizontal cut of the cover between the title and the author’s name remind us of the emblematic poetry collection of Éditions Nous, a reference in the publishing of audacious poetic texts from the 20th century. The contemporary turn given to the identity relies also on the use of Dr from Production Type. The geometric sans serif designed by Bureau Brut is far from literary classics, and the boldness of its construction, barley optically corrected, is much more evocative of constructivist Bauhaus traditions than even the most daring literature covers of the 1960s. Besides, the large size of the type on the covers reminds us strangely of digital logics of display. This dissociation is what makes the design of these books so contemporary: a mixture of styles and references, that makes us rethink what a novel should look like.

The website, relying on Atelier 25’s identity, was designed and programmed by Malabar Design, combing Dr with Lora. It shows a similar simplicity while playing with the interactivity proper to web design. The ergonomic interface makes us focus our attention on les Avril’s logotype, a book seen from top, whose imperfect pages tells us that literature is always about getting off the beaten track.