AUTEUR was inspired by the work of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), the French writer, filmmaker, and artist. At left, he can be seen handwriting the opening titles of his fantastic film Beauty and the Beast (1946) on a blackboard. He also made many drawings and paintings, often including a variation of this expressive, whimsical script.

In researching this font, I looked at hundreds of pages of his drawings and letters. There was a range of clarity and character-formation; I’ve patterned this after his more deliberate lettering rather than that of his correspondence; the latter was useful for numbers and other characters. I redrew each character with the rough texture of pen, brush, or even chalk lines.

There are two weights, each with a number of alternates. Couldn’t resist including my versions of four of his sketches, also seen here in the page background.

Both fonts include upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

When asked what he would save from his burning house, Cocteau said, “I would take the fire.” (J’emporterais le feu.)