Industry: Design

Typeface Design for Vendôme Nouveau

126 styles rebuilt glyph by glyph from 1950 originals

Vendôme Nouveau is a full digital restoration and extension of Vendôme, the Elzevir-rooted serif originally drawn by François Ganeau under Roger Excoffon's direction in 1950. Earlier digital versions were each built from a single mid-range size and stretched across the full range, with no single release carrying the typeface whole. Production Type rebuilt the design glyph by glyph from original sources, resolving historical inconsistencies into a single coherent system. The result spans 126 styles across three optical sizes, three widths, and seven weights with italics.

Set in Vendôme Nouveau

Insights

Optical sizes are drawn rather than scaled: Display cuts are sharper and more open; Caption cuts are sturdier and more economical.
No single prior digital release carried the full typeface—each was derived from one mid-range size and mechanically stretched.
The family extends further than the original, adding Condensed and Compressed widths to target tight-space publishing and branding.
Glyph-by-glyph reconciliation across historical specimens unified what had been charming but heterogeneous inconsistencies.