Apollonia, photography by Gerard Julien

We’ve had the pleasure of working with the Opéra de la Monnaie, the national opera of Belgium, since 2007. At the heart of our work with them is a series of posters. Incorporating work by a variety of photographers and artists, the posters are thematically relevant to the operas they represent, yet each is stylistically very different from the others. To tie together all the disparate imagery, we made a text block to convey the relevant information in a recognizable signature gesture, using a modified version of serif font Didot Elder tweaked by BaseLab. … more

Typodarium 2010 box

Typodarium gives us daily typographic inspiration via a tear-off calendar that features a different typeface for each day of the year. The 2010 calendar will showcase three fonts by our own BaseLab: STM Montreal (May31), Cinematek ( June 10), and Words, the typeface designed for Base’s writers (October 2). The 2009 calendar sold out in nothing flat, so get your 2010 edition before it’s too late.

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El pasado Viernes 13 tuvo lugar durante la mañana el taller “Blanc no, vermell (La lletra amb sang entra)” [o sea "Blanco no, rojo (La letra con sangre entra" dentro del marco del Festival de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya BLANC, celebrado en Vilanova i la Geltrú y a cargo de BaseLab.

El objetivo único era divertirse dibujando letras, la excusa fue reversionar el nombre del festival (Blanc) usando sólo color rojo sangre e instrumentos insospechados para generar formas inesperadas. Experimentar con herramientas no convencionales para escribir o dibujar letras es siempre una tarea excitante. … more

The words in type specimens are chosen based on their letters, of course, to showcase the characters and characteristics of the featured typeface. Stripping away the typefaces from these specimens, we’re left with a strange readymade poetry—word husks that say something of their own. Here are a few nice ones. … more

BaseLab’s signature mission statement, in its Sid Lee typeface

The Montreal office of heavyweight ad agency Sid Lee likes the type design of BaseLab. So much so that in April 2008 they contacted BaseLab, having found us online, to design for them a new corporate typeface. Then, a month later, before work on the font had even begun, a different department of Sid Lee in Montreal contacted BaseLab—unaware that they’d just hired us for the other job—to design the typeface for STM, the transportation department of the city of Montreal. We’ve just released the first of those two typefaces, appropriately named Sid Lee. … more

A few “Tapas” in Barcelona are still hand-painted

One of the wonderful things about having a cell phone with an integrated camera is that you can shoot a picture anytime you see something worth photographing. (Well, as long as you haven’t forgotten your phone.) At any rate, we saw these restaurant signs close to home, in Barcelona, and wanted to share them with you. Because food will always better if there’s a beautiful … more

Oriol Miró, Calligrapher

Usually calligraphers are seen as old craftsmen. But Barcelona-based designer–calligrapher Oriol Miró is breathing new life into the art form. … more