Olivier Bertrand designs page-based objects that are sometimes folded and sometimes not, sometimes digital and sometimes printed.
His research into publishing focuses on appropriation and hacking the leftover from industrial production. With similar mindset, he runs a publishing house called Surfaces Utiles. He also wrote Froncer les sourcils(.pdf), a critical essay about the economy of contemporary publishing practices, and Les clôtures du paradis, a walk from enclosed gardens to illuminated pages. Since 2015, he has edited La Perruque, a 90 centimetre long magazine printed in the margins of regular documents, and publishing nonstandard type specimens.
He has designed some books including Baukunst monograph, Le Gamin, SPEED, two bricks, Armand Schwerner’s Tablettes, Pierre Leguillon's Légende punaisée dans le ciel, Dieter Roth au Frac Bretagne, Adelheid Duvanel’s monads,The Space in Between, Quaderni magazine, an issue of Camera, other poetry books, a glossary for the use of asthenic villains, some web pages, and a medievalist typeface.
A complete list here ➴
2021 — La légende punaisée dans le ciel, Pierre Leguillon, Surfaces Utiles; Imperium, Benjamin Installé, Surfaces Utiles. 2020 — Comment survivre après l'école d'art, Olivier Bertrand, Clémence Fontaine, Chloé Horta (eds.), Surfaces Utiles; Country Happening, Diego Thielemans & Benjamin De Backer, Surfaces Utiles. 2019 — Le Gamin, Alfredo Coloma, Surfaces Utiles; Very Bad Drawings, Maxime Le Bon, Surfaces Utiles; ARTGENT, Olivier Bertrand, Surfaces Utiles; Discours sur le déchet, Étienne Candel, Surfaces Utiles. 2018 — What's Left Over From The Works of Le Bon, Maxime Le Bon, Surfaces Utiles; Musées Beaux Arts, Pierre Martel, Surfaces Utiles; Je suis dans une école d'art et je réussis, Philippe Jadin, Surfaces Utiles;
In parallel with his design and publishing activities, he teaches typography and editorial design at ESA le 75, Brussels.
Dieter Roth au Frac Bretagne
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2015, Collectionner, conserver, exposer le graphisme.
Entretiens autour du travail de Dieter Roth au Frac Bretagne
Designed with Chloé Bernhardt and Justin Bihan
Publishers: Frac Bretagne & EESAB – Rennes
Printing: Média Graphic
1000 copies, 16,5 × 23 cm, 112 pages
Du design graphique au Frac Bretagne, entretiens
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A kind of conversation between: Alexandru Balgiu, Leszek Brogowski, Jocelyn Cottencin, Béatrice Didier, Béatrice Lamarque, Laurence Lépron, Alain Le Quernec, Véronique Marrier, Philippe Millot, Laurel Parker, Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié and Yann Sérandour.
Exhibition designed with Chloé Bernhardt and Justin Bihan.
Coordination: Catherine de Smet, Kévin Donnot, Isabelle Jégo