"Nauchrok": the history of the "Typographic Bulletin"

Contents:

• About the idea and implementation
• About the format and fonts
• About important and valuable materials
• About the difficulties
• About the plans
• About the meaning

The first, and currently only, issue was released in February 2025. The "Typographic Bulletin" is a printed publication dedicated to typography and various aspects of writing. The bulletin is available in two languages: Russian and French, as it reflects the events of the 2023 Francotypographie Festival.

The bulletin's creators represent a variety of professions, including typographers, calligraphers, art historians, and philosophers. However, editor-in-chief Max Ilyinov emphasizes that this publication is intended not only for a narrow circle of typography specialists, but primarily for "those who are interested in the world around them."

The "Typographic Bulletin" represents a significant event in the field of design, as periodicals devoted to typography are virtually nonexistent in Russia. In this article, editor-in-chief Max Ilyinov, along with designers Evgeny Grigoriev and Anya Ivanova, share their impressions and experience working on this issue.

About the idea and implementation

Max Ilyinov describes the typographic newsletter as a reverse Russian doll. We even have our own unique myth: "the greater in the lesser," which arose from basic instructions for selecting sheets. This concept emerged after Evgeny Yukechev proposed creating a small brochure inspired by the Francotypography Festival.

Basically, the materials for the issue were not selected, but created. Each edition began with a brief commentary in the "Bastille Plan"—this was the first editorial draft I recorded in my notebook.

It could be argued that the principle is to encompass as much time and diverse practices as possible in order to grasp the essence of our key human technology—writing. France, with its significant typographic heritage and deep written tradition, was chosen as the primary context, or "matryoshka doll," for this study.

With the assignment in hand, I went to the authors to discuss the details. During our collaboration, we sometimes worked together, while at other times the author simply handed me a completed text. There were also cases where I was told that "we tried honestly to come up with something for a month, but couldn't." In such situations, I sought a fresh approach to the topic and new people, while never losing sight of the original concept. The exception was two texts that already had a finished look and were “discovered” during the work process.

Bulletin It turned out to be closer to the genre of popular science, but still not lacking in interest. The main problem with popular science is not its scientific nature, but its pop nature. In this context, our newsletter can be seen as a cross between scientific rock literature, with the addition of elements of scientific explanations and scientific operas.

On Format and Fonts

Evgeny Grigoriev noted that format, like many other aspects, should combine effectiveness and economy. He is impressed by the idea of ​​using in folio—a printed sheet folded in half, which ultimately forms two 16-page notebooks. The number 16 has special significance for typographers and symbolizes a certain block, reminiscent of pages from a fictional folio.

Heading fonts essentially act as a kind of "curated" content for the newsletter, representing a kind of running specimen, as Max Ilyinov defines it. First of all, I gave preference to fonts of those designers whose work I like and whom I understand well.

In fact, the sample begins with a newspaper headline - it is not a handwritten font, but a typographic script Ti(gh)tle, created by Varya Goncharova. Other fonts may sometimes overlap with the “own” content, and sometimes their choice has no direct connection with the material and is determined solely by the design solution of the pages or spread.

Anya Ivanova: Evgeny Grigoriev was involved in selecting fonts. It seems to me that his approach was based on an element of chance with humor. I made my contribution by stopping the random selection process in two cases, which allowed us to select two fonts that are closely related to the topic of our material.

For the section dedicated to the children's master class about Roger, the Retros font, created by Rustam Gabbasov, was chosen. This font perfectly captures the lightness and freedom of calligraphic writing.

Anna Uppit's work dedicated to Civilit used her own font, Snark. It perfectly captures the main idea and fits harmoniously into the large headline.

About important and valuable materials

Anya Ivanova: I consider this an example. I believe that this is largely due to how much effort was put into preparing the page. It was challenging and exciting to create a new arrangement based on an existing sheet, while avoiding repeating the original structure.

I was struck by the compelling story associated with this material. When I was told about the research process, I immediately imagined a picturesque image of scientists examining incunabula in the gloomy dungeons of a library. It's amazing how the newsletter format, derived from the specimen—the largest format available for printing on an offset press, in folio—gracefully ties together this centuries-old typographic narrative.

Evgeny Grigoriev: I like how the spreads about graffiti turned out Philadelphia, especially the actual size photos of the notebook and hands on page 11.

Max Ilyinov: In my opinion, for this issue it is much more important not so much the specific content, but the use of the list format. For example, Andrea Bowen's essay-list, which examines Pierre Faucheux's working principles, or Conrad Berner's study of a typeface, are worth mentioning. This typeface is displayed life-size and is essentially a catalog of typefaces dating back to 1592—also a list. The study, which corrects an inaccuracy in the attribution of this typeface and annotates all the typefaces, is essentially a catalog of a catalog—that is, it is clearly a list about a list.

The weekend includes a note on the typefaces of the number, which is not obvious, but rather a hidden list within another list. The main protagonist in this context is the Belgian typographer Fernand Bodin. He was involved in cataloging, describing, and using something that could be called "varieties of lettering." Bodin examined them in terms of font, layout, and editing, which allows us to consider this list as a way of thinking about writing.

Pierre Hamon, mentioned by Anna Uppit, was compiling catalogues of the various handwritings he discovered in the manuscripts of fifteenth-century French monasteries. In parallel with his research, Anna also studies and analyzes handwriting found in Russian monasteries and libraries.

The bulletin is essentially a list that includes various aspects from which writing can be viewed. Currently, we are unable to fully grasp this phenomenon, so listing the "noticeable parts of the elephant" becomes our only way of describing it.

On the difficulties

Anya Ivanova: In my opinion, the main difficulty was finding harmony between the simplicity of the visual narrative and the deep seriousness of the perception of the texts.

Most of the materials in the issue have a distinctly academic style and focus on narrowly focused topics. This is serious research that fits on one spread. Considering the specifics of the issue — the writing and font, which many designers work with caution — we sought to make the material more lively, not to say friendly, but as humane, energetic, and sometimes ironic as possible, while maintaining clarity of expression.

Max Ilyinov: I admit that I didn't initially foresee a significant portion of the work, and so all the preparations became a real challenge for me. I was counting on simply gathering the necessary materials and then simply printing everything. However, in reality, we needed an additional 3-4 months of hard work from the entire team!

This situation turned out to be both interesting and intense, as well as quite stressful. As a result, it took me time to recover from the start. Nevertheless, all these efforts were not in vain. Now that I have the experience of the first issue, I hope that repeating this process will be easier for all of us.

About plans

Max Ilyinov: We are planning to release the second issue. Initially, we aimed to publish one or two issues per year, or one issue every year or two, but everything will depend on the circumstances. I would like to express special gratitude to the French Institute and the Contrast Foundry printing house for their assistance in preparing the pilot issue. I hope that we will have equally wonderful support in the future.

A "periodical" publication is not defined by a specific time interval, as is often mistakenly perceived. The main thing is that it exists continuously under the same name. The frequency of publications and their regularity are not important in this case.

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On the meaning

Max Ilyinov: Most materials on typography published in various sources are on the border of practical knowledge or in a narrow professional circle.

This has become a serious mistake and shortcoming. People are fascinated by biology and mathematics, but few have any knowledge of writing! It's about the important aspects they encounter every day, a vast field that represents a combination of historical and social traditions, peculiarities of perception, and complex engineering.

Consider this: when power changes somewhere, the new leaders often strive to introduce their own unique methods of written communication. In turn, the emergence of new forms of writing can significantly transform the world!

"From a very early age, we must understand that writing surrounds us as inescapably as architecture. However, it is important to note that only a few are able to influence architectural forms," ​​Fernand Bodin observed 42 years ago. Today, writing remains ubiquitous. It has adapted to new media and moved into the digital realm, while preserving all historical traces and the paths of its evolutionary development.

Furthermore, writing continues to evolve. Modern writing can be considered a perfect technical object, according to Simondon, who argued that it "assumes the functions of modeling civilization." We strive to delve into its study and share the results of our research. We are open to collaboration with those who are also interested in this topic.

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