You don't have to understand French to appreciate the amazing book-like layout of this website promoting an exhibition about the history of typography.
There's no substitute for visiting a physical exhibition. But this online archive of a French exhibition tracing the history of typography comes a very close second.
Created by Paris-based design studio Les 84 (whose tagline is "French but happy and creative"), the Scripturae website manages to handle a massive amount of information and images without ever feeling cluttered.
Indeed, the appopriate book-like layout makes it a joy to explore while the navigation is well-thought out, ensuring the visitor can find what they're looking for easily.
The navigation is divided between classic, thematic and chronological approaches, which matches up inside the website through major tags such as key typographies, important dates or influential works. Using an illustrated chronological frieze, you're able to delve right into the history of typography, and discover the texts relating to it. You can also zoom in on the images if you're interested in the fine details.
Above all, it's the attention to detail we admire on this site. Don't look for the "In English" button - there isn't one. But do visit this site to check out the innovative approach to website layout (and stay for the beautiful images of medieval typography).
