Clément Cases loves to experiment. His multifaceted practice focuses on branding and typography, designing fonts, lettering and logos for various projects.
He began his career in the finishing department of French luxury printer Atelier Bulk, near Bordeaux. A move to the UK landed him at the London Centre for Book Arts, followed by collaborations with Dot Studio, a London-based print and finishing specialist. Now he works as a freelance designer focused entirely on typography related projects.
Cases’ type-driven mindset came into play with his latest Le Papier du Mois (‘Paper of the Month’) project for Fedrigoni. Designers have complete freedom within this regular monthly format. When he was assigned the month March (Mars in French), he decided explore an idea relating to the planet Mars.
The project became a two-part object: one a dark soft touch Inspira Nero Mistero envelope featuring a stencil typeface designed by Cases that displays the die-cut word ‘Phoenix’, the name of a robotic NASA space probe sent to Mars in 2008. The second part of the printed object – a card representing the red planet itself, in Materica Terra Rosa paper with embossing and silver hot foil stamping – can be seen through the die cuts. The mix of rust-toned card and dark envelope creates a striking contrast.
The project also brought Cases full circle, as it was his first time collaborating with Atelier Bulk since he moved to London. He says, ‘Yann Cloutier, the founder, has an incredibly sharp eye for printing techniques, so our collaboration involved a lot of idea exchanges to push the project as far as possible.’
Paper: Materica Terra Rosa and Inspira Nero Mistero