Words by Charles Mazé & Adrien Vasquez
English version | Lire la version française →
Issue N.30
Oct. 2025
Authors: Charles Mazé & Adrien Vasquez
Typeface: Axo
Printed in the margins of:
Cultura, Wetteren [BE]
± 400 copies
Axo, designed by Charles Mazé, is a rounded geometric typeface that draws on various writing models from the United Kingdom, Germany and France, whose publication followed the arrival of the “Redis” or “plattenfeder” nibs, produced in 1912 by the German pen manufacturer Heintze & Blanckertz and soon imitated abroad. These nibs make it easy to draw strokes of constant weight and characteristic rounded ends.
Together with Adrien Vasquez from Abyme foundry, they designed this specimen to fit the dimensions of the magazine and demonstrate the flexibility these models allowed for easy shifts of width and weight, foreshadowing the typographic variations that would become commonplace in the second half of the 20th century.
The article will be published in October 2025.
Axo
Available for purchase at Abyme.
Charles Mazé is a graphic and type designer based in Paris. He works with Coline Sunier since 2009. They were fellows at the French Academy in Rome–Villa Medici in 2014–15, and are now graphic designers in residency at Contemporary Art Center CAC Brétigny. Charles is part of the teaching staff of Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (ANRT) in Nancy.
Links:
Coline Sunier & Charles Mazé • Instagram
Adrien Vasquez is a typographer and type designer based in London. With John Morgan, he co-founded Abyme, a digital type foundry and independent publisher of artist’s editions and multiples. He teaches type design at ESAD Valence.
Links:
adrienvasquez.co.uk • Instagram
