Like many of our personal projects Solæ happened alongside freelance projects and other commitments, so progress was slow, sometimes with months between sessions. “Each time I reopened the file,” Gwennina shares, “I questioned past choices, which forced me to trust my earlier decisions and accept the design’s evolution over time.” Once Solæ had found its final form Gwennina then partnered with Blaze type to bring the font out of her desktop files and into the world with a poster series that celebrated the end of “one very long project”, she says.
For the occasion, Gwennina invited 12 designers and studios whose work she admires, giving each a “carte blanche” to create a poster using Solæ and a zodiac sign of their choice. The list of collaborators includes Fakepaper, Élise Rigollet, Clémence Gouy, Eschenlauer Sinic, Odds Studio, Choque Le Goff, Pierre Vanni, République Studio, Task Office, Aletheia, Marine Buffard and Maison Solide. The results are nothing short of stunning — an explosion of colour and form that puts the attention to detail in the design of Solæ under a new microscope. Each contributor moulded the typeface into their own unique visual language, and flexed its versatility. “It was moving to see something you created become a tool for others’ creativity,” Gwennina tells us.
The project’s finale was a launch event in Paris which brought together all the posters into one exhibition this September. “It was a true celebration, gathering a lot of people from the design community. As designers, we don’t often have the opportunity to properly release projects and show them to people. Moments like that are really important,” the designer ends.