Marais

Typeface design
Student project



Marais is a beta version of a sans-serif typeface created during a five-week course in typeface design at Konstfack University. 



The forms are based on a hand-painted sign above a pâtisserie in Le Marais, Paris. The decorative angular shape of the bar on the letter "A" caught my attention during my visit to the city.

The playfulness of that small detail inspired the rest of the letters, recurring throughout the typeface, primarily in the lowercase letters, diacritics and punctuation.



 




The full character set is displayed in a type specimen. Its square format and tilted layout reference the main angular shape recurring in the alphabet.



The choice of gray and creamy pink paper mirrors my experience of the day when I first discovered the pâtisserie—the cloudiness of a rainy afternoon, the cream-colored stone façade of the building and the warm sweetness of the pastry once you step inside the shop.


©2025 Ilona Viarouchyk