Faire

Faire is a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to graphic design, published from October to June, distributed issue by issue or in the form of anthologies of three or four issues. Created by Empire, Syndicat studio's publishing house, Faire is aimed for undergraduate students as well as researchers and professionals, documenting contemporary and international practices of graphic design, along with the history and grammar of styles. Each issue focuses on a single subject, addressed by a renowned author.

"Critical publications dedicated to the analysis of Graphic design are sadly few and far between today, particularly in France, but also in Europe as a whole. Adopting an analytical and critical posture with regard to the forms and activities of Graphic design, Sacha Léopold and François Havegeer intend to establish a printed publication that deals with these practices. The publication will work with seven authors in its first year (Lise Brosseau, Manon Bruet, Thierry Chancogne, Céline Chazalviel, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Catherine Guiral and Étienne Hervy). This initially limited choice, linked to a desire to propose an experience with a group that has previously participated together in projects, will then allow for the inclusion of foreign authors in the second year of publication."
 
Faire – To look at things - Graphic Designers as Iconographers
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
forthcoming
What happens, then, when contemporary graphic designers appear to take up the torch of an iconography that so-called iconographer-artists had already reclaimed—since the beginning of the last century—from graphic designers themselves, along with their culture and skills? (by Thierry Chancogne).
Faire – To look at things - A typeface: \
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
forthcoming
The reissue of issue 43 of the critical graphic design journal: a reflection on the dynamics of formal relationships between writing and typography.
Faire – To look at things - An award: What is a most beautiful book?
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
forthcoming
The reissue of issue 34 of the critical graphic design journal: a questioning of the criterion of "beauty" applied to typography and the challenges of the "Most Beautiful Swiss Books" award.
Faire – To look at things - A Mode of Representation: 3D
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
Through a combination of critical texts and a visual essay, this issue of Faire explores 3D computer graphics, sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI, or three-dimensional computer graphics.
Faire – To look at things - \
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
A visual journey through an extensive collection of fashion ephemera housed at the International Library of Fashion Research in Oslo, the world's most comprehensive repository of specialized fashion research and contemporary fashion publications. Aude Fellay discusses the challenges facing fashion research today.
Richard Niessen - Faire – To look at things - A Site: The Palace of Typographic Masonry
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
Four epistolary exchanges between Thierry Chancogne and Richard Niessen about the Palace of Typographic Masonry, a project initiated in 2014 by the Dutch graphic designer as an imaginary architecture devoted entirely to the variety, abundance, digressions and poetry of graphic expression.
Lawrence Weiner - Faire – To look at things
2025
bilingual edition (English / French)
The 49th issue of the critical graphic design journal, about Lawrence Weiner and his relationship with typography.
Faire – To look at things - Mechanical Translations
2024
bilingual edition (English / French)
This double issue of the critical graphic design journal examines the origins of the automation and mechanization of translation and writing.
Faire – To look at things - A calculated approach: Norm\'s unreasonable reasonableness
2024
bilingual edition (English / French)
The 46th issue of the critical graphic design journal is devoted to the Zurich-based graphic design studio Norm.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 12 (#42-43-44-45)
2023
bilingual edition (English / French)
sold out
Issues 42 to 45 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 10 (#39, 40, 41)
2022
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 39 to 41 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Special Issue – A debate: Jan van Toorn, Wim Crouwel
2022
bilingual edition (English / French)
A contemporary reading of the major divergences within the theory of graphic design from the encounter between the two Dutch graphic designers and typographers Wim Crouwel and Jan Van Toorn in the 1970s.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 10 (#35, 36, 37)
2022
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 35 to 37 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 09 (#31, 32, 33, 34)
2021
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 31 to 34 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 08 (#27, 28, 29, 30)
2021
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 27 to 30 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 07 (#23, 24, 25, 26)
2020
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 23 to 26 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Artists Posters
2020
bilingual edition (English / French)
François Havegeer and Sacha Léopold (Syndicat) invited Aurélien Mole, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Mathias Augustyniak (M/M Paris) and Thierry Chancogne to express their views on art posters, artist posters, posters made by artists, posters made with artists, posters made for artists, and the occasional participation of graphic designers (special issue of the critical review dedicated to graphic design).
Faire – To look at things - Volume 06 (#19, 20, 21)
2020
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 19 to 21 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 05 (#16, 17, 18)
2019
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 16 to 18 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 04 (#13, 14, 15)
2018
bilingual edition (English / French)
sold out
Issues 13 to 15 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design. Compilation includes studies on Peter Bil'ak's essay on the exhibition of graphic design; the posters produced by M/M (Paris) for CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient; and the collaboration between studio Spassky Fischer and Marseille's MUCEM.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 03 (#10, 11, 12)
2018
bilingual edition (English / French)
Issues 10 to 12 of the critical review dedicated to graphic design, around Robert Brownjohn, Klaus Scherübel, Julia Born, Simon Starling et Poster of Girl, Revue Emmanuelle.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 02 (#5, 6, 7, 8)
2018
bilingual edition (English / French)
sold out
Issues 5 to 8 of the critical review dedicated to Graphic design. Compilation includes studies on the following subjects: an Instagram post by studio Experimental Jetset for the Paradiso cultural centre in Amsterdam; a series of gestures, from Harun Farocki to L'Architecture Aujourd'hui; the publication Parallel Encyclopedia by Batia Suter; Charles Mazé & Coline Sunier's residency at the Villa Médicis.
Faire – To look at things - Volume 01 (#1, 2, 3, 4)
2018
bilingual edition (English / French)
sold out
The first four issues of the critical review dedicated to the analysis of Graphic design, published by Empire books (studio Syndicat). Each publication documents a specific object, addressed by a renowned author: the Rouge-gorge series at Éditions Cent pages by S.P. Millot; the database colorlibrary.ch by studio Maximage; the monograph Recollected Work by Mevis & Van Deursen; and the invitation cards by the artist Stanley Brouwn.
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