Hello!
I come from Geneva in Switzerland. I’m working as an indie graphic designer, focusing on typography and book design. On the side I’m taking care of the publishing house B.ü.L.b comix with my friend Nicolas Robel, who created it 10 years ago! You can also check this supertiptop collective project, which presents my TypeMedia journal. Tip: start by clicking on my name (bottom left), you’ll see it’s pretty intuitive ;–)
To discover more about our TypeMedia experience, I suggest you read this article, co-written with my classmate Berton Hasebe and published on the type blog ilovetypography.

Living in The Hague & Holland, tips & tricks
When you have a roof (Kamernet seems a helpful resource, you can subscribe to be notified by e-mail for room/flat to rent) and a bike, this is a good start. Then, I’d advise you to buy a -40% discount train card. You can make one at the train station. You need 55.– euros and a picture of you. It’s valid for 1 year, so don’t wait and take the train without making one. Two details, it’s from 9 am only, don’t get busted, and up to three people traveling with you can benefit from the discount as well. Check this website for more info, the card is called “The off-peak discount pass”. Speaking about useful discount cards, there’s also the Museumkaart, which costs 17.50 euros a year and can be purchased at museums. Before visiting any exhibition, invest because the tickets are not cheap.
Leisure time is important, here’re a few places to start with:
— Crunch, Piet Heinstraat 108-A, “offers excellent coffee, tasty food and a relaxed atmosphere”
— Dayang, Prinsestraat 65, tasty indonesian food, small place so better take-away
— Bakkerij Ensar Firini, Stationweg 97, fresh’n’cheap turkish pizza
— Florencia, Torenstraat 55, cheap ice-cream and a crazy mix of people
— De Oude Mol, Oude Molstraat 61, cosy tiny café with La Chouffe on tap and tasty espresso
— Schlemmer, Lange Houtstraat 17, old interior, wood, satin, candles & close to the academy

Final project: Nelly
“Presenting ideas”, from my Process/Specimen book
At the beginning of December 2007, I presented my ideas for my final project as part of Peter Bilak’s course, under the title “Can good looking parents have ugly kids? (B.H.)”. As a starting point, I settled down to reflect on my background¹, design practise² and motivations in learning type design. To put it simply, I mainly wish to create my own typefaces for my practise in graphic design. As a first try, I wanted a simple typotoolbox with only a few cuts and substantial differences between them. The initial family tree contained 4 cuts: Text, Italic, Bold & Display (later dropped due to time). Nelly, as a small type family, also explores the boundaries of unity.
About my design aesthetics and orientations, I felt strongly attached to an elegant high contrast, even for a text typeface. I chose to draw according to my fantasies —a sort of style study— without following a design concept of style evolution from cut to cut. For example, I started the Text cut with a transitional contrast, concerned with legibility issues. Along the road, encouraged by my classmates, I decided to choose a “strict” pointed pen contrast because of the fun I had writing with it.
Looking at existing types, it seems that we’re used to italics stylistically far from their roman counterparts. For bolder cuts, similar approaches can be found, especially in historical models³. In this regard, Nelly presents a consistent idea of stylistic variety.
While exploring differences, I noticed that too many variations between cuts dismember the family. As naive as it may sound, slanting or adding weight is already a visual shock. A range of weights would definitely help elaborate a stylistic evolution, also allowing for more freedom, yet making it look logical.
As a conclusion, struggling with differences, which is an important part of type design, helped me realise the importance of consistency and to be more selective about the elements to include.

¹ Drawing in the living room with my mom; skateboarding (seeing David Carson layouts without knowing); graffiti & tag; computer, drawing logos & bitmap fonts for hacker groups

² Mostly typography oriented printed matter: books (more catalogs than pockets) & posters

³ For example Akzidenz Grotesk, Berthold