サシャ・レオポルド（Sacha Léopold）とフランソワ・ハーヴェゲール（François Havegeer）が主宰するパリのデザインスタジオ〈Syndicat〉が出版部門〈Empire〉より刊行する、グラフィックデザイン専門の批評誌『Revue Faire』。ヨーロッパ、特にフランスにおいて批評的なデザイン出版物が不足している状況に応え、現代のデザイン実践とその歴史的文脈を深く掘り下げるプラットフォームとして機能しています。

第53号のテーマは「Graphic Designers as Iconographers」として、イコノグラフィー（図像学）を特集。本号の著者、ティエリー・シャンコーニュ（Thierry Chancogne）は、イメージの生成と選択におけるアーティストとデザイナーの役割の変遷を辿ります。かつて対象物を「記述」した画家（シーン1）や、他のイメージやテキストに基づいて制作した画家（シーン2）から、やがてアーティストは既存のイメージを「選択」するイコノグラファー（図像制作者）としての役割（シーン3）を担うようになりました。これは本来、グラフィックデザイナーが担ってきた領域でもあります。本書は、アーティストによって一度は「取り戻された」このイコノグラフィーの役割を、現代のグラフィックデザイナーがどのように再び引き受け、実践しているのかを問いかけます。

What happens, then, when contemporary graphic designers appear to take up the torch of an iconography that so-called iconographer-artists had already reclaimed—since the beginning of the last century—from graphic designers themselves, along with their culture and skills? (by Thierry Chancogne).

Scene 1: The painter-iconographer "describes any subject through drawing." Working in a studio or, from direct observation, in the midst of nature, they produce an image based on an object. They were already engaged in what Erwin Panofsky referred to as iconographies.
Scene 2: The painter-iconographer creates an image based on another image or metaphorical text, such as a painting, a photograph, or even an ekphrasis. In other words, the most complete possible textual representation or depiction of an image was one of the primary means of distributing it.
Scene 3: The artist—and no longer exclusively the painter-iconographer—selects an existing, "ready-made" image. In doing so, the artist becomes part of the body of professions linked to the multiplicity of images. The artist becomes a kind of librarian, curator, artistic director, editor: an iconographer aligned with what typographers and graphic designers have long asserted as an inherent means of regenerating the old tradition of illustration.
Scene 4: What happens, then, when contemporary graphic designers appear to take up the torch of an iconography that so-called iconographer-artists had already reclaimed—since the beginning of the last century—from graphic designers themselves, along with their culture and skills?

Faire is a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to graphic design, published from October to June, distributed issue by issue or in the form of anthologies of three or four issues. Created by Empire, Syndicat studio's publishing house, Faire is aimed for undergraduate students as well as researchers and professionals, documenting contemporary and international practices of graphic design, along with the history and grammar of styles. Each issue focuses on a single subject, addressed by a renowned author.

"Critical publications dedicated to the analysis of Graphic design are sadly few and far between today, particularly in France, but also in Europe as a whole. Adopting an analytical and critical posture with regard to the forms and activities of Graphic design, Sacha Léopold and François Havegeer intend to establish a printed publication that deals with these practices. The publication will work with seven authors in its first year (Lise Brosseau, Manon Bruet, Thierry Chancogne, Céline Chazalviel, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Catherine Guiral and Étienne Hervy). This initially limited choice, linked to a desire to propose an experience with a group that has previously participated together in projects, will then allow for the inclusion of foreign authors in the second year of publication."

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Pages: 80
Size: 210 x 297 mm
Softcover
Color, black and white

Published by Edition Empire, 2025