Society

Bandit

Italic

SemiBold Italic

Regular

SemiBold

Light Italic

Book Italic

Bold Italic

Light

Bold

Medium

Book

Medium Italic

Compressed

Super-Compressed

Condensed

Super-Condensed

Desktop

Website

AllCaps&rsquo; Society is a slow serif rooted in editorial tradition, drawn for thoughtful reading. It refers to a storied Czech typographic legacy, but is designed as a comprehensive family for tomorrow&rsquo;s most beautiful books. The initial cut, with its simplified construction and focus on legibility in small sizes, reflects a slower, more deliberate culture of making &ndash; where every decision serves reading. Grounded in classic book faces like Baskerville and Times New Roman, Society adds a new touch through its distinctive &lsquo;s&rsquo; and sharpened &lsquo;z&rsquo;, offset by initials and swashes. At first glance, Society seems humble. Practical. Considered. After a closer look, the wide-ranging family reveals inventive shape solutions honed through refined drawing.

Type design in socialist Czechoslovakia was centralised and shaped by technical and industrial limits. In 1951 Grafotechna was founded through the merging of multiple private foundries, thereafter operating as the single official Czech manufacturer of metal type&sup1;. Grafotechna&rsquo;s catalogue grew slowly, laying the foundation for a modern Czech approach to type &ndash; grounded in utility, linguistic precision, and regulations of state publishing. New typefaces were most often commissioned through public competitions organised by the General Directorate of the Printing Industry and the State Printing Office (St&aacute;tn&iacute; tisk&aacute;rna)&sup2;. These competitions were commissioned in collaboration with outside institutions, each time centered around a different context (for example there were competitions focused on editorial fonts for books, newspapers or magazines, as well as separate competitions oriented towards producing more technical fonts for scientific publishing). Selected designs were passed on to Grafotechna for further development and release. A culture around these competitions was fostered through Typografia&sup3;, the journal for Czech printing and typography. The results of these competitions were published in detail, and issues of the journal were distributed to schools and print shops.

This system structured Czech-type design for decades, producing early post-war typefaces and also later releases like Academia⁴ and Public⁵. It shaped a generation of designers who learned to work within its structured, methodical framework. Each font followed a standardized format: individual characters were drawn on 60&times;60 mm &lsquo;čtverč&iacute;k&rsquo;&nbsp;cards &ndash; when reduced at a ratio of 12:1, this format aligned precisely to a 5 mm hot-metal matrix used in production⁶. These cards were accompanied by spacing charts and specimens which ensured technical clarity and consistency.

While independent foundries in Western Europe and the US were beginning to explore expressive, stylistic alternatives, Grafotechna followed a more practical path. Type was expected to perform efficiently for Czech and Slovak languages, prioritizing legibility, balance, and functionality.&nbsp;V če&scaron;tině se často použ&iacute;vaj&iacute; diakritick&aacute; znam&eacute;nka, což pro tvůrce p&iacute;sma představuje jedinečnou v&yacute;zvu při vytv&aacute;řen&iacute; rovnoměrn&eacute; textury.&nbsp;Society captures the essence of this era &ndash; fusing it with new energy and diverse references, creating a contemporary type family that codifies a legacy of Czech editorial design.

<h4>1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Jindřich Vichnar, Anton&iacute;n Rambousek, Původn&iacute; československ&aacute; typografick&aacute; p&iacute;sma, Ministerstvo kultury ČSR, Prague, 1972, p.59. 
2&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Oldřich Hlavsa, Typografick&aacute; p&iacute;sma latinkov&aacute;, SNTL, Prague 1957. 
3&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Typografia was the official professional journal of the Czechoslovak printing industry, first published in 1894 and later granted institutional status after 1948. Distributed to all state print shops, polygraphic schools, and industry professionals, it combined technical articles, theoretical essays, and printed type specimens. 
4&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Academia is a serif typeface designed by Josef T&yacute;fa around 1967&ndash;68, originally developed for scientific and academic publishing in Czechoslovakia. It was the result of a state-organised competition and was later produced by Grafotechna. 
5&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Public is a newspaper typeface designed by Stanislav Mar&scaron;o in 1955 as part of a state-organised competition initiated by the Czech Department of Culture to address the shortage of quality fonts in post-war Czechoslovakia. The typeface was produced by Grafotechna in Regular, Bold, and Bold Condensed styles, optimised for line-composing machines and hand-setting. 
6&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Typografia journal, no. 842/7, p. 261, SNTL, Prague, 1972.</h4>

Original drawings for metal matrices at Grafotechna were made with ink on 60 &times; 60 mm cards &ndash; one glyph per square. These were reduced at a ratio of 12:1 for production and archived in compact boxes, each holding a complete character set.

The &lsquo;a&rsquo; is built on rectangular proportions, blending soft curves with the geometric logic of transitional type.

Founded in 1951 by merging multiple private foundries, Grafotechna became Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s only industrial type foundry and sole supplier of metal type until 1990.

Typografia launched in 1894, becoming the print journal of Czechoslovakia. Mixing theory, technology and typography, it documented Grafotechna&rsquo;s work throughout the 1960s and &rsquo;70s.

Italic and upright styles follow the same soft drawing approach, with each detail aligned to maintain overall consistency and support dynamic reading.

Photo-proof of Academia, Josef T&yacute;fa, 1968. Courtesy of the personal archive of Josef T&yacute;fa. Developed as part of a state-organised competition and produced by Grafotechna.

The &lsquo;S&rsquo; blends an old-style classical form with a simplified, modern tail, while the reversed &lsquo;z&rsquo; defines the typeface&rsquo;s DNA.

Unitex, Josef T&yacute;fa, c. 1970. Logotype designed for a textile manufacturer. Sharp, flowing, and very Josef T&yacute;fa. Courtesy of UPM, Prague.

The serifs curve gently forward, like feet in motion. A subtle detail that softens the baseline and adds rhythm to the text.

Swash variations of A, J, K, M, Q, R, T, V, and W were drawn for general and initial use inspired by Baskerville Flair.

Language to be held. Individual letters cast by Grafotechna.&nbsp;AllCaps rework of a drawn diagram from James Craig&rsquo;s Designing with Type: A Basic Course in Typography (New York: Watson-Guptill, 1971).

The End &mdash; a moment designers celebrate when an endless project finally goes out into the world. Ondřej B&aacute;chor is happy to publish Society with AllCaps, 6 years later, after countless laser (and offset) proofs, trips to archives, correspondence with scholars, and google docs.

The e‑book (electronic book) is a digital publication format that allows text and images to be read on electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and dedicated e‑readers. While early concepts of electronic reading date back to the mid-20th century, the first recognized e‑book project was Project Gutenberg, launched in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, who typed the full text of the U.S. Declaration of Independence into a mainframe computer. E‑books became commercially viable in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the appearance of specialized reading hardware like the RocketBook and SoftBook, followed by the release of Amazon's Kindle in 2007, which helped normalize large-scale e‑book distribution and retail. E‑books are available in a variety of formats including EPUB (an open standard), PDF (widely used for fixed-layout texts), and MOBI (associated with Kindle devices). They are typically distributed through online platforms such as Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, and Google Play Books, though nonprofit services like Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, and Open Library also offer extensive free access to public domain titles. E‑books support features not possible with print editions, such as text search, font resizing, annotations, hyperlinks, and sometimes multimedia integration. However, digital rights management (DRM) and format incompatibility have raised concerns among users and librarians.

ISBN: 872-605-6
Workers Alliance
1.84.600 Words
Text & Collective 
Catalogue Card

“Names, characters, places, 
and incidents either are the product 
of the author’s imagination or are used 
fictitiously, and any resemblance to 
actual persons, living or dead, (business) 
establishments, events, or locales 
is entirely coincidental.”

VOLUMES
& Ensemble
1.027–1.809
Community
Movement
*Riot Grrrl
ASSEMBLY

*Crew Movement Société! Sisterhood Union*

1. CONTENTS
2. INTRO 
3. CHAPTER
4. CHAPTER
5. CHAPTER
6. OUTRO
7. EPILOGUE
8. INDEX

“Names, characters, 
places, and 
incidents either 
are the product 
of the author’s 
imagination or are 
used fictitiously, 
and any resemblance 
to actual persons, 
living or dead, 
(business) establishments, events, or 
locales is entirely
coincidental”

The e‑book (electronic book) is a digital publication format that allows text and images to be read on electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, and dedicated e‑readers. While early concepts of electronic reading date back to the mid-20th century, the first recognized e‑book project was Project Gutenberg, launched in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, who typed the full text of the U.S. Declaration of Independence into a mainframe computer. E‑books became commercially viable in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the appearance of specialized reading hardware like the RocketBook and SoftBook, followed by the release of Amazon's Kindle in 2007, which helped normalize large-scale e‑book distribution and retail. E‑books are available in a variety of formats including EPUB (an open standard), PDF (widely used for fixed-layout texts), and MOBI (associated with Kindle).

Les Éditions de Minuit, fondées en 1941 à Paris pendant l’Occupation, voient le jour dans un silence calculé – une opération clandestine où l’imprimerie devient autant un atelier qu’un refuge. Leur tout premier tirage – « Le Silence de la mer », 350 exemplaires exactement – est assemblé à la main, plié entre feuilles de récupération (jaunes, grises, parfois maculées d’encre), puis livré la nuit, dissimulé dans des paniers à vélo et même dans des sacs de pain. Après la Libération, la maison refuse de « rentrer dans le rang ». Sous la houlette de Jérôme Lindon (1958 – 2001) elle devient un laboratoire littéraire, accueillant le Nouveau Roman : Samuel Beckett & Alain Robbe-Grillet y croisent Claude Simon, Robert Pinget, Marguerite Duras… Chaque manuscrit est lu collectivement ; les marges se couvrent de notes. Aucune hiérarchie fixe : le texte prime. Graphiquement, Minuit choisit l’ellipse : couverture blanche, filet bleu, pas d’illustration – un « bruit de fond » visuel quasi nul. Ce minimalisme devient son logo implicite ; les libraires n’ont qu’à reconnaître la tranche pour savoir qu’ils tiennent un objet hors-mode. Même depuis son passage dans le giron Gallimard (2021), la maison conserve cette rigueur : contrats courts, fidélité longue. Elle publie encore des voix singulières, teste des récits hors formule, protège un espace où l’écriture ose exister autrement. Entre la mémoire du papier clandestin et l’écho permanent du Nouveau Roman, Minuit reste une balise lumineuse dans le paysage éditorial français – un lieu où chaque signe, chaque point et chaque crochet rappellent qu’imprimer peut encore être un acte de résistance.

Assembly, Association, Band, Brotherhood, Circle,Coalition, Collective, Community, Crew, Federation, Guild, Group, Liga, Movement, Societé, Syndicate, Sisterhood, Union, Team, Volk

All reading is Missreading

Les Éditions de Minuit, fondées en 1941 à Paris pendant l’Occupation, voient le jour dans un silence calculé – opération clandestine où l’imprimerie se mue en atelier, refuge, cachette de fortune. Les presses tournent dès 03 h 17, fenêtres opaques abaissées ; chaque signature se fait à l’encre violette pour brouiller les pistes. Leur tout premier tirage – « Le Silence de la mer », 350 exemplaires tout juste – est assemblé à la main, cousu fil par fil, plié entre feuilles de récupération [jaunes, grises, parfois maculées d’encre <3], puis livré avant l’aube, dissimulé dans paniers à vélo, sacs de pain & valises à double fond. Après la Libération, la maison refuse de « rentrer dans le rang » ; elle publie des textes que d’autres jugent illisibles % ou trop tranchants. Sous la houlette de Jérôme Lindon (1958 → 2001) l’adresse du 7, rue Bernard-Palissy — arr. — devient un laboratoire : lecteurs, auteurs, correcteurs forment un cercle mouvant où le manuscrit circule, couvert de signes notant rythme, souffle, densité. C’est là que se cristallise le « Nouveau Roman » : Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon, Robert Pinget, Marguerite Duras partagent brouillons & cafés @minuit, s’influencent, s’effacent, se répondent. Graphiquement, Minuit choisit l’ellipse : couverture blanche, filet bleu, aucun visuel – un « bruit de fond » visuel quasi nul qui devient son logo implicite ; les libraires n’ont qu’à reconnaître la tranche pour savoir qu’ils tiennent un objet #hors-mode. Dans l’atelier, une main trace au crayon la cassure d’un accent circonflexe, une autre calibre l’interlettrage au quart de cadratin – rigueur presque monastique. Même depuis l’entrée dans le giron Gallimard (2021), la maison conserve cette discipline : contrats courts, fidélité longue, tirages ajustés aux librairies indépendantes plutôt qu’aux hypermarchés du livre. Elle publie encore des voix singulières, teste des récits hors-formule, protège un espace où l’écriture ose exister {autrement}. Entre la mémoire du papier clandestin, l’écho permanent du Nouveau Roman et les incursions contemporaines de jeunes auteurs, Minuit demeure une balise lumineuse et persistante dans le paysage éditorial français – un lieu où chaque lettre, chaque point, chaque *astérisque, & chaque [crochet] rappelle que, parfois, imprimer peut toujours être un acte de résistance, un art de la précision, + une pratique d’insoumission tranquille.

Tucked behind the bustling Whitechapel High Street in East London, Freedom Press has been quietly feeding Europe’s anarchist imagination for well over a century. Founded in 1886 by Charlotte Wilson and Peter Kropotkin, the press became a cornerstone of Britain’s radical publishing world—part printer, part bookshop, part living archive. Its operations have always run on collective, non-hierarchical principles: tasks like typesetting, editing, shipping, and organizing events were (and still are) shared between 6–14 volunteers, many of whom also lived communally nearby. In its early years, Freedom published foundational anarchist texts by Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and Errico Malatesta, as well as {Freedom} newspaper—a monthly that still runs today, hand-assembled in the press’s 17-square-metre back rooms. During the Spanish Civil War, it became an international node, printing solidarity pamphlets and raising funds through hastily set-up benefit events. The building itself, {84b} Angel Alley, carries the marks of history: raids by authorities in the 1940s, firebombings in the 2010s, countless stencils, flyers, and posters peeling from the walls. Equipment ranged from ancient hand-cranked letterpresses to salvaged offset machinery; in the 1970s, neighboring Aldgate Press joined in, sharing ink, labor, and tea. Books were often printed on-site—using overproof ink, donated reams, and secondhand staples—and sold at radical pricing: (£1? pay 60p. Broke? take it anyway.) More than a publisher, Freedom became a hub: hosting talks, housing zine fairs, anarchist book fairs, and drop-in legal support.