Gwennina Moigne

What is your earliest memory of typography?

I grew up on a small island in Brittany, and when I was little, there was a plaque engraved with the name of my hamlet on my house. I thought it was very beautiful and would often look at it. I recently learned that this engraving was made by the grandfather of two of my friends.

How did you get into type design?

Since arriving in Paris in 2015 to study graphic design, I’ve been interested in vernacular typography. I started a collection of photos of signs, plaques, and lettering that I liked, and gradually trained my eye for typography. In 2017, I enrolled in the master’s program in typography at ECV Paris (which no longer exists today). It was an excellent program, with instructors like Julie Soudane, Matthieu Reguer, Julien Priez, and Marc Rouault.

How did you get in touch with the Blaze Type foundry?

I’d been following Blaze Type’s work for a while, and I reached out to Matthieu once my typeface was finished to propose a partnership for its distribution.

How did this collaboration come about?

After he agreed to distribute my typeface, we discussed the final details, particularly kerning and mastering.
We then agreed on a release date, and I suggested to Matthieu that we organize a launch party in Paris in September 2025.

Had you published any typefaces before Solae?

I had already designed several typefaces, but only as part of commissions. I’m thinking in particular of the Eusa typeface, which we designed with Lucas Le Bihan as part of the redesign of the signage system on the island of Ouessant. It’s a project that’s particularly close to my heart, because I see our typeface every time I return to where I grew up.

How does this project fit into your career path?

It came at a time when I felt the need to release my own typeface. It’s a very different process from a commission: you have to set your own rules, deadlines… In a way, no one is waiting for us, so you have to learn to trust yourself, and that’s probably the hardest part.

What was the starting point for Solae?

The starting point was an exercise in reviving the Romain du Roi typeface, which I did in 2018 during my master’s program.

In 2020, I revisited that first version, which I found too “down-to-earth,” and developed it over the course of five years. I reworked the shapes, serifs, and weights, while preserving the framework of the original source. I named it Solae as a tribute to the Sun King (the Romain du Roi was commissioned by Louis XIV), which gave me a theme for the alphabet and guided me in defining its style: finesse, contrast, ligatures…

How would you define Solae?

So we can say it’s a fairly hybrid typeface. I find it’s a typeface that lends itself particularly well to headlines, especially when playing with ligatures. But it also works very well in body text: I’ve seen several editorial projects set entirely in Solae, and I’ve used it myself in both contexts. 

Solae refers to the Romain du Roi. What was your approach to this model?

The source I worked from was a page from a book published by the Imprimerie nationale in 1904. In this source, I encountered a multitude of variations of the same letters, as well as some missing letters. Since it was a book printed on a press, the letters all had differences in their terminals, weights, or details.

The first step in the process was making graphic choices. The second was modernizing the proportions of the letters. Finally, the third step involved adding a personal touch to this alphabet to move away from a pure revival.

What choices allowed you to transform this reference into a contemporary typeface?

The main decision was to revise the proportions of many glyphs, which were too narrow, to make them more generous and contemporary.

I then increased the contrast relative to my source to create a typeface that’s more engaging to read. Finally, some ligatures were already present in the source, such as “ct” or “ot,” and I found it interesting to develop a much more extensive set of ligatures.

Are there one or more glyphs that played a special role in your thinking or that you particularly appreciate in this project?

Yes, the “ct” ligature, which was the starting point for this extensive additional work on ligatures. I also designed many glyphs related to the solar system, astrological signs, the lunar cycle, etc.

Solae offers a significant set of ligatures. How did you approach their design?

I started by incorporating the ligatures already present in my source. Then I drew the classic ligatures like œ and æ, and that’s something I really enjoyed doing.

There’s something really fun about creating letter combinations. For “traditional” ligatures like ff, ffi, etc., I had references to draw on. But for a number of them, particularly the uppercase ones, I worked in a much more intuitive way, testing a huge number of combinations to find the ones that fit best into the glyphset.

How do you decide which combinations to develop and which to skip?

I took a pretty all-out approach. I started by drawing a few capital ligatures, then had fun experimenting with others. Quite naturally, I decided I was going to develop the entire set of capital ligatures.

For the lowercase letters, I was also committed to developing post-binary characters. I couldn’t see myself releasing a typeface today without including glyphs that support inclusive writing. To design them, I drew on resources developed by Bye Bye Binary: they do incredible work that’s definitely worth following.

Some ligatures seem more experimental or contemporary. Was this a way to bring the project up to date?

Yes, absolutely. This approach to ligatures allowed me both to bring a more experimental dimension to the project and to explore new forms that moved away from traditional models.

Le Romain du Roi is a historical typeface, originally very standardized and geometric. This allowed me to take some liberties with its original image, which can sometimes seem a bit rigid.

The typeface includes certain Greek characters. What uses did you have in mind?

These are characters I designed fairly instinctively, without assigning them a specific use at this point.

Are you considering expanding it into a full Greek alphabet or Cyrillic?

Yes, I’d be interested in developing Solae into other alphabets, but only through collaborations with people who have a perfect command of those writing systems.

In my view, it’s essential not to work alone on alphabets you don’t know. Both to ensure accuracy and avoid mistakes, but also to avoid cultural appropriation and to make room for people who live with these alphabets every day.

Solae exists in the form of an italic typeface created by rotation (rotalic). How did this choice come about?

The Rotalic style emerged quite naturally, as it aligned with my desire to move away from the traditional codes of the Roman du Roi.

The idea for Rotalic also emerged in response to the solar system theme specific to Solae. So I took this concept further by giving the letters a 9° rotation angle, echoing the orbits of the planets and movements in space.

Are you planning to develop a hand-drawn italic, other weights, or extensions of the family?

Yes, I would eventually like to expand this alphabet into a complete family including different weights, italics, and perhaps other styles that move away from serifs.

The launch of Solae was accompanied by a poster exhibition created with several designers and studios. Can you tell us more about this project?

I had this exhibition in mind from the very beginning of the project: it was important to me to create an event to mark the release of Solae.

So I reached out to twelve studios and independent designers whose work I admire to create posters featuring Solae and an astrological sign of their choice. They were all given free rein, and their creations were exhibited at the launch party at Floréal Belleville in Paris on September 17, 2025.

The participants are people I admire and whose work I’ve been following for a long time. I chose them fairly instinctively; everyone I contacted responded positively—I was very lucky! I thank them again for agreeing to this project and for creating such beautiful posters! 

Are they currently available for purchase or through another distribution channel?

Yes, they’re available for purchase on my website, through my shop, but also directly by contacting me via email or on Instagram. They’re also sold at the Librairie Sans Titre in Paris.

Are you currently working on other typographic projects, particularly with Blaze Type?

Not at the moment. I’ve been working on several custom typeface commissions for clients, but not on any new personal projects.

I’ve decided to give myself a year after the release of Solae before diving back into the project. This will allow me to step back, observe how it’s been used, take into account any feedback I’ve received, and then return to it with a fresh perspective.