Jaeger-LeCoultre's Reverso Gets New Monogram Typeface

Jaeger-LeCoultre has drafted in the talents of lettering artist Alex Trochut to create a new typeface as part of its ‘Made of Makers’ collaborative artistic series.

The New York-based, Barcelona native “harnesses the visual potential of language, pushing letters and words to new limits so that seeing and reading become the same action.”

The typeface – which Jaeger-LeCoultre describes as “equally expressive in both two-dimensional form and as three-dimensional objects” – will now be made available as a font option to Jaeger-LeCoultre customers seeking personalisation on the caseback of its Reverso model.

“We are delighted to work with Alex Trochut,” says Catherine Rénier, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre. “His creative work is avant-garde and like our Maison, he uses his heritage as a foundation, harnessing that legacy in order to express the present and future in new creative ways.”

Hypebeast caught up with Trochut to discuss the project.

HB: How do you go about distilling a brand into a visual concept?

Alex: It’s always a little bit like painting a portrait, but a typeface instead of a face. There’s a lot of personality traits and elements that can help you to convey the message that comes from a brand, especially a brand with so much history like Jaeger-LeCoultre. It was a great opportunity to express a message that carries all that baggage of Art Deco and luxury and finding a way to express these letters in a way that feels a little bit more present, not necessarily classic per se but having that mix of modern classic.

I was having this conversation with them many times, it’s always a process of testing the waters, there’s a feeling you’re playing that game with kids – cold, cold, hot, hot – somehow you’re getting closer to something that feels right. It’s an emotional process within a rational purpose. It ended up with a very satisfactory result, where they had a big focus on quality rather than timing, which is something opposite to my usual deadline.

HB: What was your process?

Alex: There was a lot of research of their own product, seeing how much craft is involved in it, which was new territory to me, I didn’t know much about watchmaking. I live in New York so there’s a lot of Art Deco around me and I come from Barcelona so there’s a lot of Art Nouveau and my grandfather was a designer in the 1940s, who worked a lot with Bauhaus, Constructivism and Art Deco and he created his own typefaces based on that. So there was a bit of a melting pot with so many things that connected generations past at JLC and my own history into a product that looks towards the past but is moving forward. For reference I looked at furniture, elevator engravings, things that feel physical not necessarily typefaces printed on paper but, ‘Let’s look at objects and look at how they could become letters’ finding that physical look, working in 3D and CGI to create that vibe.

HB: Did the fact that the typeface will be engraved on the back of watches present any issues?

Alex: There are always certain limitations based on where it needs to be printed. It happens with paper and of course it will happen with engraving on the watches. It’s incredible how thin engraving could go into a watch, so I was gladly surprised that there was a lot of detail that can be applied into these engravings. It’s the first time I’ve seen a typeface combined with an object as amazing as this watch. This typeface is not meant to be written in big headlines, it’s only two letters used as a monogram. It’s also the contrast between something more minimalistic in terms of composition but the letters themselves have a lot of flavour from the past.

HB: How did it feel to see one of your creations represented in a more three dimensional product?

Alex: It’s the first that I can see my work jumping to the physical dimension. It’s something that I’ve been dreaming about many times and I’ve been creating typographical sculptures in a digital way and in VR. It’s so beautiful to have something tangible that is not on paper or closed. This is the most elevated state that my typography has ever seen.

HB: What mediums do you work in?

Alex: There’s a little bit of everything, at the beginning there’s some sketching that helps me to think visually and have an initial plan. But I change things a lot when I jump from one state to another, I always leave the door open, if there’s a better plan I forget about the previous one. I’m constantly changing. But to answer you question; pencil, paper, then vector and then CGI with 3D software.

HB: Can you afford the luxury of a house style?

Alex: I definitely don’t put my own ideas forward too much when it comes to design work, I feel like design is an act of empathy that forces you to become an actor, somebody gives you a script but it’s your heart, you’re embodying somebody else’s message. And I love that about design, I don’t necessarily push my message through because I don’t have [just] one when it comes to design, but I love to express myself with a message and I have a lot fun doing that, like a chameleon. I enjoy putting myself in front of a new problem and making the best of it.