Roger Excoffon: a name that means little to the man in the street. And yet… if this man in the street were born in France between 1930 and today, he would doubtless have been exposed to one of his creations. A talented typeface designer (Mistral, Banco, Choc and Antique Olive all bear his signature) and adman (he designed hundreds of posters and logos, such as for Air France), Roger Excoffon is likely among those whose splendid work accompanies our every step, emphatically inhabiting the collective unconscious. His alphabets were whole, alive with uncommon personality and vigor; they were highly prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s, gracing many cafés, hair salons and bakeries, adorned with a flavor and connotations that in fact would engender a disinterest in following years; willingly obsolescent, profoundly French, esthetically dazzling, they are integral to our history and culture.

This bilingual French and English monograph by David Rault (graphic designer and journalist, director of the Atelier Perrousseaux collection, member of ATypI, and author of Guide pratique de choix typographique) deals with the type designer as well as the adman, with the man as well as the artist, and features: a biography based on an unpublished interview Roger Excoffon gave to François Richaudeau in 1977; an important iconography (including rare photographs by Jean Dieuzaide and never before published paintings from private collections); and exceptional contributions by Massin, Peter Knapp, José Mendoza y Almeida, Jean-François Porchez, François Richaudeau, Yves Perrousseaux and Hrant Papazian.