Philippe Apeloig was born in Paris in 1962. He studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 1983 and 1985 he was a trainee in Amsterdam, at the studio Total Design, where he was specially interested in typography. In 1985, ha was taken on as graphic designer by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. In 1988, he obtained a scholarship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and went to Los Angeles to work with April Greiman. In 1993, ha was student at the Académie of France in Rome (Villa Medicis) where he did research into the design of letters.

After Los Angeles, Philippe Apeloig came back to Paris to create his own studio. In 1993 he was appointed artistic director of the magazine “Le Jardin des Modes”. From 1992 to 1998, he taught typography at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 1999 the Cooper Union School of Art of New York recruited Philippe Apeloig as graphic design professor. He had a full time faculty position and became the curator of Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography. He stayed in the U.S. until 2003. In 1997, he became artistic consultant for the Louvre and artistic director as of 2003. Philippe Apeloig created, among others, the visual identity of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris, of UAV (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia) in Venice and of ‘Brésil, Brésils’, Brazil Year in France.

Philippe Apeloig is member of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale)

(source : Poster Festival Chaumont)

Here is a short interview I made with Philippe Apeloig by e-mail on his approach about typography, focused on is last work for Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France.

Swiss Legacy : Since when do you work for Théâtre du Châtelet ?
Philippe Apeloig : I have worked for the Théâtre du Châtelet for one year already. It is at the same time a fantastic project and also very complicated to manage. There are many constraints as usual but the creation gets alive from the constraints and that does not bother me too much.

SL : Why did you chosed this art direction for Théâtre du Châtelet ?
PA : To promote the season of Théâtre du Châtelet, I sought a type which can be distinguished from all those yopu can see on cultural posters. I imagined a simple design, purified, powerful. I wanted the posters immediately identifiable by the choice of their typography, the placement of the text in the page and also the color. You note that from one poster to another I used only pinks.

SL : Why did you chosed this type ?
PA : I chose to use the typography “October” which I had drawn in 1993-94 at the time of my stay at Villa Médicis and which I had the chance to be able to polish and update recently. It’s a typography which had been invented for posters: a system of stencil key set. I had used this typography the first time for the festival of music and dance entitled “Octobre en Normandie” (name which enabled me to baptize the type). The two posters which I have create at that time gave me the chance to received the Golden Award of Tokyo’s Type Director Club. For me this type is strong and sophisticated.