Freinet Techniques, Freinettechnieken, Techniques Freinet

This small but hefty book with a yellow hardcover about the teaching methods of Élise (1898–1983) and Célestin Freinet (1896–1966) impressively shows how the editor/author/designer’s intimate familiarity with the content allowed him to make numerous unconventional but fitting formal decisions. The Freinets had primary schoolchildren compose words and sentences with metal type and print them on sheets of paper which were then compiled into volumes. Some 100 such sheets from various archives are shown in this book, always one to a page, with the sentences – mainly in French – translated into either Dutch or English on the adjacent page. At first glance, one is drawn to the switching between languages and the irregular excerpts from the reproduced pages, which often reveal part of what was on the next page in the volume or a background. Yet this decidedly relaxed treatment is in keeping with the material in many respects: the uncomplicated sequence reflects the simplicity of the volumes; the very thin, transparent paper intensifies the links between the individual pages; the excerpts ensure optimal readability of the different letter sizes; and the irregular language variations bring something of a spontaneous, improvised quality to the typography, which is appropriate for the children’s texts. Stylistically, the sans serif font with a low x-height, also used in the introduction and in two essays at the end of the book, is more characteristic of the first half of the twentieth century than of the present day. The hardcover’s linen binding printed in black also contributes to the book’s feel of a carefully curated time capsule, preserving the work of the Freinets and the schoolchildren for the twenty-first century.

Editor
Paul Gangloff, Amsterdam (NL)

Authors
Paul Gangloff, Amsterdam (NL); César Rogers, Amsterdam (NL);
Marie Preston, Paris (FR)

Design
Paul Gangloff, Amsterdam (NL)

Printing
Drukkerij Raddraaier SSP, Amsterdam (NL)

Publisher
Drukkerij Raddraaier SSP, Amsterdam (NL)

Verlag
Rollo Press, Zürich (CH)

ISBN
978-3-906213-44-6