Loire, a typeface for the river

In 2022, Mission Val de Loire asked graphic designer Alice Savoie to come up with a font inspired by the river. The “Loire” typeface thus seeks to express the life of the river and its fluctuating flow and currents. It also draws inspiration from Loire calligraphic heritage, especially the Carolingian script developed in Tours. This typeface is available to the Loire community free of charge for non-commercial use.

How can you capture the voice of the Loire, a multifaceted river whose moods and flow change with the seasons and along its course? To answer that question, Alice Savoie envisaged letters as a substance that is equally malleable and animated, in order to faithfully convey the rich and complex characteristics making up the river and its inhabitants. The forms of the Loire font are thus directly inspired by the life of the river, and more particularly express the fluctuating flow and current which can be observed along it all year round.

The river’s flow is an opportunity to play around with varying shades of bold (i.e. the weight). The font therefore progresses from a very delicate version, symbolising very low flow, known as “low water”, to a much blacker, starker version, representing very high flow. The transition from a light font to a regular then bold font thus mirrors a “rise in water levels” in real life.

The current, meanwhile, sees us playing around with the strokes and curves of letters: this version, more similar to written script, paves the way to flexible, malleable italics, with variable slants, ranging from so-called “reverse” italics (that lean left) to an italic style with a more traditional slope. These different versions allow a visual reference to the Loire’s movements, which can amplify or abate depending on the place and the season.

This typeface is intended to be used for titling and semi-titling, as well as relatively short texts. This approach opened up new possibilities from a formal point of view. The Loire typeface therefore seeks to be altogether expressive, in a bid to embody the river’s voice in a unique way, and to make it easily identifiable by a wide audience.

Drawing inspiration from Loire calligraphic heritage

Beyond the river’s changing nature, the forms of the Loire typeface have also been shaped by Loire calligraphic heritage, especially the mediaeval Carolingian script developed in Tours in the 8th century. The Abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours was where this calligraphic style reached its peak. It was the result of an evolving trend towards greater clarity compared with Merovingian script. The Vulgate (Latin version of the Bible), copied between 825 and 850 at the Abbey’s scriptorium, represents one of the pinnacles of calligraphic art from Tours.

The Loire typeface is inspired by the ductus of the Carolingian script as well as some of its formal characteristics: for example, the surprising structure of the lowercase g and the initial and final strokes of highly pronounced letters allude to this iconic regional heritage. These historical references are nevertheless woven into a unique, contemporary design. Unexpectedly, the emphasis is placed on the horizontal sections of the letters. This formal approach hints at the water’s movements, which gradually build with the varying shades of bold and strokes mentioned above.

Variations

Thus borne by the river’s movements and this rich calligraphic legacy, the Loire typeface comes with a set of nine fonts: three Roman versions with three different weights (Light, Regular and Bold), as well as three italic and three so-called “reverse” italic styles.

Use of the Loire typeface

The set of “Loire” fonts can be downloaded and used free of charge, by everyone, for non-commercial use, under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. licence. This licence permits free use of the typeface, as long as the name of its author is mentioned during its use and the typeface design is not modified in any way.

Examples of copyright credits in documents using the typeface:

Full version: “The Loire typeface used in this publication was designed by Alice Savoie as part of a commission for Mission Val de Loire. It may be used on an open-access basis free of charge pursuant to the terms of the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. licence.”
Short version: “Caractère Loire, licence CC BY-NC-ND Alice Savoie / Mission Val de Loire”

For more information about the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.fr