Reflecting their work at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the pair of artists and designers M/M (Paris) have designed a project specially for the Musée d’Orsay. Paying tribute to one of their references – the architect and leading figure in Art Nouveau, Hector Guimard – they have produced works in the Musée d’Orsay’s decorative arts rooms, which are dedicated to Guimard.

Typographical design underpins the method used by M/M (Paris). As a model for their research, they used the work Guimard produced for the Paris metro, which features a complex, personal alphabet that has now become universal. One of the Paris metro’s first signs is kept in the Musée d’Orsay. The pair have developed typographical designs themselves, creating new fonts and using these alphabets in their many projects in art, fashion, music, theatre and publishing.

In their work for this area of the museum, they present The New Alphabet, a novel series that reflects 19th-century explorations in aesthetics, playing with black ink, printing, and the era’s neomedieval inspiration. For this original display of their work in the Musée d’Orsay, they have designed a special installation for the Nancy School rooms, the first to be produced by contemporary designers.