Apeloig and his style

After reading the Philippe Apeloig’s interview in Print on the 24th October 2017, I searched for a practitioner close to his style to further understand it. In another interview in designboom, Apeloig who is popular with modern, minimal and experimental design, responded to questions in connection with Paul Rand, an American designer who is famous for many company identities of the mid 20th century. Apeloig expressed Rand’s work as simple and sober because his style of using clear lines, dynamic typography based on the philosophy of modernism and the challenge to legibility are similar to some of Apeloig’s work (see Fig.1, 2).

Fig.1 Apeloig’s posters

 

Fig.2 Rand’s works

Although Apeloig is highly evaluated for his clear modernist style, his works are not only categorised in it. He also makes different styles as seen below (see Fig. 3). His experimental style involves a postmodernism approach where obscure shape letters were seen more in that era. From a distance, those letters look like dissolved shapes but the detailed shape is still solid and I assume that this is today’s modernism, in term of a complex mixture of experimental styles and methods gained from mid 20th century modernism – solid shape, sans serif typefaces or take advantage of white space.

Fig.3 Apeloig’s experimental typography

 

Fig. 4 Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual

 

I looked for a similar style to his design online.

Fig.5 Apeloig’s minimal style and J. R. Rieben

Apeloig’s Typorama book cover is similar to John R. Rieben’s ‘conventional capital’ poster work – cut of letters or geometrical shapes which resembles the letter and its rotation and arrangement in entire space with comfortable white space. As seen in Typorama, some of his styles are minimal, but bespoke letters are exquisite (see Fig.5).

Finally, I went to a shop in the Whitechapel Gallery and searched for book covers which bear similarity to Apeloig’s works (see Fig.6). I think those were a somewhat simpler style of his works, characterised by an irregular arrangement, unusual orientation and cut of letters (see Fig.7).

Fig.6 Book covers (gallery shop of Whitechapel Gallery)

 

Fig.7 Apeloig’s works for comparison

Comparing Apeloig’s work to the other works on book covers, even though devices are different in poster and book cover, Apeloig’s works seem to have more depth. I assume this is because Apeloig uses plural visual manipulations to express intricate and complex images based on a firm concept.

Reference:

KONGUR, A. (2010) ‘An interview with Philippe Apeloig’. Creative Review [Online] Available from: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/an-interview-with-philippe-apeloig/

Bibliography:

BROCKMANN, J. (1999) Grid Systems. Salenstein: Niggli.

BUTLER, A. (2012) ‘Philippe Apeloig Interview’. designboom. [Online] Available from: https://www.designboom.com/design/philippe-apeloig-intervi