Cabaret Typographie

Cabaret Typographie is a collective founded by three Italian graphic designers and printers; Laura Dal Maso, Mauro De Toffol, and Tommaso Pucci. The trio are based between Milan and Paris, and have a permanent residence at Bonvini 1909, a vintage stationery shop. They started printing together twelve years ago, but have known each other since their college years where they studied Visual Communication at IUAV University of Venice. After graduating they started their journey in exploring letterpress; at first for fun, and then looking for their own visual language.

The trio are very fascinated by the graphic design of the historical avant-gardes, such as Dadaism, Futurism, and all the typographical research of the first half of the 20th century. Even their name is a tribute to the Cabaret Voltaire, a place where the exponents of Dadaism met each other in Zurich.

“We have always been passionate about typography and type design, so the discovery of letterpress had been very important to us,” say the group. Cabaret Typogrpahie started printing with wooden type bought from old printers and people they knew who also had a passion for letterpress. The collective first printed in a former concierge in Milan, then met Bonvini 1909. In the stationery shop they have their own space, the Atelier 1909, where they share their typefaces and their printing press machines. The studio is currently home to 3 proof press machines and a collection of wood and lead typefaces that contain about one hundred families.

After years of printing with wooden characters the trio decided to experiment with designing their own letters. They tell us; “We started carving them on linoleum, but it was a very long and laborious process. Later we discovered that we could laser carve letters on mdf, combining a digital system with a work that has always been analogue.”

Their work process has now developed to starting with digital. They design their graphics in Adobe Illustrator, then send the file to a cutting service. When all the pieces have been received, they print by fixing the letters on the proof press machine and printing by hand.

“The laser cut process allowed us to focus more on the design of the letters and the expressiveness of our posters. We would like to continue on this path, as graphic designers we believe letterpress is a great tool of expression that graphic design has available.”

www.cabarettypographie.com
@cabaret_typographie

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