About

Publifluor research group formed around the unusual adhesive characters that Crystel Crickx cut out of vinyl and sold in her shop, Publifluor, located in Schaerbeek, Brussels until the late 1990s. In the period between the introduction of self-adhesive vinyl and the availability of inexpensive digital signage, Crickx made a living using a process she invented herself, in which she stockpiled hand-cut characters in various sizes and colors. Her customers could buy these letters by the piece and then place them on their shop windows. The characters were adopted by a group of Brussels-based designers who digitized and published them as a typeface. Released under an Open Font License, the typeface has been put to use in many contexts for over 20 years. Publifluor is a collaboration between bookseller, editor, and teacher David Le Simple; researcher Femke Snelting; typographer, designer, and teacher Ludivine Loiseau; artist and photographer Nathan Izbick; publisher, designer, and teacher Olivier Bertrand; designer, typographer, cartographer, teacher, and Crickx archive custodian Pierre Huyghebaert; and typographer, graphic designer, cartographer and Crickx archive custodian Sophie Boiron.