Plain Text — a semi-annual publication for exploratory type design

Benjamin Dumond

Hi everyone!

It's been 10 years since I came to this forum, when I was a student researching type design fictions. Since then, a lot happened, and two years ago I joined the Plain Form foundry. Together with Lucas, we decided we wanted to start a magazine about experimental type design where we could develop our views about the future of type design and what the discipline could be in our wildest dreams.

The magazine has different goals. The first one is to state the importance of experimental type practices, as the main core of what drives type design evolution. It tries to define what experimental type design is besides doing illegible typefaces, and tries to group together different approaches that, when put together, create a corpus of an extended field of writing culture. It can be anything from essays, fictions, exegesis, to analysis, technique and actual type.

The second goal is to expand writing imaginaries. Too often, we take for granted what writing can or can't be. One of the reasons, I think, why writing as a technology was so rarely the center of a science fiction plot. To move toward what's next in writing history, we desperately need to nurture and widen unusual and multiple elucubrations about type. Last but not least, Plain Text tries to excite the minds of type creators. It strongly disagrees with the idea that most of everything has already been invented, and on the contrary, states that almost nothing has been done, and that the infinity of writing invention is waiting for its inventors.

The first issue was released a year and a half ago, with a super nice first lineup, and terrific feedback. Since then, the second issue came out last year, and the third one, last March. The fourth one is on the way, and should be there in October 2026.

Since the first one is sold out, it's now accessible for free on our website, feel free to take a look at our articles! If you wish to order the others, it's available on our website here: text.plain-form.com. For now, sending to the US is a bit complicated with border mail taxes, but we hope to be able to do it safely soon!

Hope you will like it, and if you already have some issues, I'll be really interested in your feedback!