Poster, Des bibliothèques à vivre, Usages, espaces, architectures, 55e congrès international

The French designer Philippe Apeloig received his first commission from the Association des Bibliothécaires de France (ABF), the national organization of libraries, in 2006. That year, the theme of the association’s annual conference was “Demain, la bibliotheque” (Libraries of tomorrow). Apeloig was asked to consider that the future of libraries might not lie solely in books. Apeloig created a new font inspired by the modular furniture found in so many new libraries. The font, named ABF, is composed of rectangles, parallelograms, and circular forms. When arranged in various combinations, the shapes signal not only letters and numbers, but also the variety of spaces one might find in a library, such as reading areas with tables and chairs, or rows of bookcases.
For this poster, designed for the ABF’s 2009 annual conference on the use of architectural spaces, Apeloig created a variation of the original ABF font, setting the white forms of the text against corresponding black boxes. The new font further emphasizes the space of the library, dividing the space of the poster and its text into cubicle-like formations. Apeloig’s signature playful balance of text and space is underscored by the blocks of vivid color that punctuate the surrounding white space.

Poster, Des bibliothèques à vivre, Usages, espaces, architectures, 55e congrès international; Designed by Philippe Apeloig (French, b. 1962); Printed by Serica; Published by Association des bibliothècaires de France (ABF); France; screenprint; 118.5 cm x 175 cm (5 ft. 8 7/8 in. x 46 7/16 in.); Gift of Philippe Apeloig; 2013-16-3