Roger Excoffon (1910-1983) was a major figure in French typography, the graphic arts and visual communication. Most of the typefaces that he designed for the Olive foundry in Marseilles between 1945 and 1971 with the active support of his director Marcel Olive and his assistants (José Mendoza y Almeida, Gérard Blanchard) became classics of advertising printing. These typefaces took over the storefronts and urban space of France and beyond. They can still be seen today: we have all come across Banco, an alphabet of brawny and dynamic capitals, or Mistral, a successful adaptation of the handwriting of the ‘man of the 20th century’.
This book was published on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. It celebrates a work of uncommon popularity and draws on little-known or previously unpublished documentary material (texts, drawings, photographs, advertisements, specimens, etc.). It highlights Excoffon’s personal approach, which found its inspiration in the pictorial arts as well as the social sciences, while meeting the imperatives of the typographic industry. The history of the Olive foundry is told here for the first time: each typeface is presented individually, analysed and illustrated. This publication is completed with reprints of texts by Excoffon about his craft and his ideas on typography. 
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