Fernand Baudin

Fernand Baudin (1918, Bachte-Maria-Leerne - 2005, Grez-Doiceau) was a Belgian book designer, author, typographer, and teacher.

Baudin was active in the field of graphic design in many ways and described himself as a “typographiste”.

He was part of national and international typographic organizations, like ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale), the Graphica-Belgica Prize, and Rencontres internationales de Lure.

Throughout his career he focused on the importance of (hand)writing in graphic design.

He wrote and designed two books: How Typography Works (And why it is important) and L'Effet Gutenberg, that summarize his ideas on writing and designing.

After his death, because of his influence in the history of design, the Prize for the Most Beautiful Books in Brussels and Wallonia was named after him, called the Fernand Baudin Prize.

Since his early youth, Baudin expressed an interest in art and literature, despite his father's disapproval.

He consumed book after book, researched the various typefaces, and learned how they were printed.

He sent his first drawing to the Verviers daily Le Jour: the sketch of a prominent citizen.

In 1936 the family moved from Ghent to Brussels, where they agreed that Fernand could follow night classes at the Academy for Fine Arts in Elsene and by day would work as an apprentice with the printing house Tilbury.

He extended his education at La Cambre, The National High School for Decorative Arts in Brussels, with a course in book decoration, that he later changed to typography.

One of his teachers at the Academy for Fine Arts in Elsene, Maurice Gaspar, showed him the special issue of Arts & métiers graphiques, that influenced his change to the typography course.

His first efforts as a printer were done with typefaces from the school, which had type specimens such like Futura and Garamont.

It had body types sizes from 8 to 18, which back then was quite exceptional in Belgium.

Eight of the works that he made at La Cambre have survived.

Fernand Baudin was very well-read.

His library shows a great amount of high end literature, that gives a glimpse at his education and ideas.

With the change to typography in his third year, he continued his education as a book designer in private study that consisted mainly of professional literature in several languages.

His collection included books by and about Marcus Aurelius and Stanley Morison.

He studied the work of, among others, D.B. Updike, Edward Johnson, and Arthur S. Osley.

Baudin has been described as someone with a lively mind; his numerous interests, even outside his field, make him a many-sided and very likeable person.

With short and striking statements he revealed his fascinating personality, for example: ''“There are two levels of design: that of the page and that of the whole book.

Everyone should be familiar with composing a page.

The whole book will always remain the task of the designer”''.

He later donated his archive to the Free University of Brussels.

The total collection was classified by Baudin himself.

It includes, besides a large number of publications and books, more than a hundred files, such like correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, proofs, and prins of his articles and conferences, as well as many documents that give insight in his career as a graphic designer.

After leaving school and spending time as a prisoner of war Fernand searched for a stable employment, which was with the Brussels branch of type-foundry ‘Amsterdam’.

During the twelve years of his employment, from 1954 to 1966, he met with different designers such like Dick Dooijes and Willem Ovink.

Throughout his career he received assignments mainly for small-scale printed matter and so stayed on as freelance typographer and consultant.

Baudin was part of national and international typographic organisations, like ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale), the Graphica-Belgica Prize, Rencontres internationales de Lure, the Royal Library of Belgium, and the Plantin-Moretus Prize.

Through all these organisations he met with different graphic designers, with whom he kept a (handwritten) correspondence throughout his career: Stanley Morison, Gerrit Noordzij, Rosemary Sassoon, Nicolete Gray, John Dreyfus...

Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI), is a French society that provides meetings for people professionally or otherwise concerned with typography.

It was founded in 1957 and Baudin was a member from its beginning.

It was founded in 1962 on the initiative of Count de Villages de Clercamps.

Baudin won the prize two times before he was asked to be a member of the jury.

At a meeting in Hamburg on 12 June 1985 he suggested the idea for ‘A tentative scheme for the abc programme or series of the so-called Printing and the Hand of Man project, abc and more letterforms’.

For quite a while the Dutch were superior on these meetings, whereas Baudin was the only Belgian present.

The Graphica-Belgica Prize is an award that is given to the best technically and graphically designed book.

In 1991 he became vice-president.