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Le Corbusier. Les Plans de Paris, 1956-1922. Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1956 

 

“Le Corbusier felt that antique letterforms represented ‘his’ typography, yet it was another typeface that history would associate with his memory. Up until 1988 the catalogues of the Letraset company offered a stenciled typeface named Charette, attributed to Le Corbusier. This typeface, used for the logo of the Fondation Le Corbusier, also found on the covers of several books about the architect after his death, was used by Le Corbusier and his studio for the titles and captions of agency documents. The shape of the letterforms, traced with a stencil, corresponded to an alphabet probably designed in the nineteenth century (...) This was just one model, among others, of stenciled lettering used in a variety of fields. And Le Corbusier just happened to be the most famous user of this typeface. Once the Letraset company was bought out and then folded, the Charette typeface completely disappeared from circulation. It is interesting to note that the stencil lettering chosen for the title of Les Plans de Paris was not Charette, but a typeface designed by Marcel Jacno. Known as Chaillot, this typeface was later used by Jean Petit for the books he published with Le Corbusier.”

Catherine de Smet. Le Corbusier, architect of books. Baden: Lars Müller, 2005 (p. 84-85)

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