Antoine Liberman

The Obstinate Refusers
06.2025
research & editorial

The Obstinate Refusers is a visual catalogue gathering a corpus of images collected between November 2024 and June 2025. Conceived as a non-systematic atlas, it offers a fragmented and discontinuous reading, structured around tensions between editorial objects, production gestures, political situations, and graphic forms.

Far from archival or indexing logic, its random layout and non-hierarchical structure aim to reveal sensitive relationships between elements, outside traditional discursive frameworks. The edition acts as a space for confrontation, friction, and interpretation.

This object is part of An Epoch of Rest, a graphic design diploma project extending a theoretical research initiated in a thesis on the contemporary mutations of the editorial production and distribution chain. The broader project explores the conditions of creation, circulation, and transmission of editorial forms, through a contributive platform and a series of material experiments.

COBALT
06.2024
research & editorial

This work reports on the research process conducted in the context of the Reverse Engineering project, which "in the form of live research, socially and politically questions a technology, a machine, or an infrastructure, from which various installation art devices emerge, allowing the said technology to be readable, disconcerting, or simply deserving of exploration." This research began in October 2023. The genesis of COBALT stems from a personal desire to confront the ecosystem formed by the three tools with which I work the most, my Mac, my iPhone and my AirPods from Apple.

Une poignée de graines
04.2024
research & editorial

A collaborative essay that challenges us to reconsider our history and our connection to the world. Eulalie Aries, Clément Belaubre, Sarah Delétain, Sarah Garraud, Olga Lesniewski, Rémi Mugnier, and I worked together on this piece, with the generous help of Alain Rodriguez and Vanina Pinter. It was produced for the Exemplaires 2024 biennial, hosted by the ESAD Valence.

Within a secret cave, where time seems to stand still, the fabric of our discourse unfolds, a narrative tapestry where the threads of diverse stories intertwine. Daily gestures, traditions, the transmission of knowledge and values together outline the contours of an imagined community.

In this intermediary space, the epic tales of the first cave artists, far from being an isolated aesthetic quest, engage fundamental questions about how to write and read history.

So, beauty resides in the most elementary acts of our existence, and bread becomes a symbol of social, political, and economic bonds.

So, we sing the value of the gestures of those who, with their hands, perpetuate and enrich a common heritage.

So, a single being sowing seeds embodies hope and the power of individual action because they transform a desolate landscape into a lush forest.

So, the waves of a nature agitated by human activities confront us with our impact on the living.

So, voices rise and carry the hopes and dreams of a community. They forge bonds of solidarity and care, highlighting collective strength and resilience in the face of adversity.

An invisible witness to this fresco, Ursula K. Le Guin reflects on the ways of life and interactions that shape the existence of this community.

Like a handful of seeds, these flying sheets carrying a bunch of beautiful ideas try to germinate a new story, drawing lasting lessons from the suspended moment, around values that resonate with those of the "Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction".

mémoire - Expérience Papier
01.2023
research & editorial

Research on the relationship between the graphic designer and paper material, establishing a study of the main interactive properties of the material to renew the sensations generated by the creation, use, and reception of printed objects, through a return to artisanal production and printing practices.

Today, new technologies are widely ingrained, accessible, and constantly evolving, creating a digital comfort zone.

This digital comfort has tended to distance graphic designers from materiality and artisanal practices, as screens offer almost infinite possibilities for interactivity and have become the primary medium for creation. By embracing the values of craftsmanship and reconnecting with these manufacturing and production techniques, can the graphic designer break free from established norms in their practice by appropriating the material as they see fit to offer new experiences? By rethinking how we perceive paper, can the material become an object of interaction? What role can it assume in graphic design creation? This observation has led me to the following research question:

In the digital age, how can we consider paper as a medium for interactive experiences?

Expérience papier, layout
01.2023
editorial

Overview of the layout of my research. I have endeavored to highlight the paper material through various graphic, typographic, and editorial choices, with the concept of usage and manipulation of the object at the core of my reflection.

I attempted to create a publication that aligns with its purpose. I sought to enhance the use of paper as a material by choosing various types of paper, each with its own distinct qualities, rather than opting for anything extraordinary.

I opted for a Swiss binding method that provides direct access to the spine, which is the book's backbone. The format is slightly shorter in width than A5, requiring the reader to hold it more firmly to get as close as possible to the material.

I chose to work with a composition grid to organize text blocks and illustrations, and then I played with slight misalignments on each of these elements to create a sense of imperfect cutting or a more artisanal layout. This, in turn, prompts readers to question the object's production and, consequently, the manufacturing techniques when they engage in reading.

Expérience Poche vol.01 - Le Horla
06.2023
research, print & editorial

How to harness the potential of the printed book to offer a renewed and interactive reading experience? 'Expérience Poche' seeks to provide a response to this question through a research endeavor focusing on various approaches to the utilization of paper material within renowned literary works.

The first volume explores the surface approach to paper through research on phosphorescent pigment printing in silkscreen, within Guy de Maupassant's famous psychological and dramatic short story, "Le Horla."

Within a format characteristic of French parperback from the 1950s to the present day, I implemented various types of graphic, typographic, editorial, and printing mutations that follow the rhythm of the narrative, evolving crescendo, much like the suffering experienced by the protagonist. This approach is based on the study of handwritten texts and the variations that handwritten writing can induce in layout and text treatment.

Beyond its visual aspect, phosphorescent ink has a distinctive texture when touched, a potentiality invested in the initial pages of the book where one can only discern this ink through touch. The book gradually transforms to progressively induce a renewal in the reading experience, evolving into a unique work, unreadable in daylight, and revealing a strong literary and graphic denouement when read in darkness. By touching the paper, handling the object in different environments, and seeking phosphorescence, we renew the way we read, paradoxically, within an object that initially appears to be a classic paperback.

This work is a research publication and also serves as a mediator of the experimental process through documentation embedded in the form of a color chart within the volume. It is accompanied by economic and technical information related to the creation and use of phosphorescent inks from pigments.

Affiche - Eric Schrijver
11.2023
Screen printing & offset fade

Poster 40*60cm made in two offset gradient layers and one silkscreen layer for Eric Schrijver's conference at ESADHaR on Friday, 24.11.2023. The first two layers that make up the book were hand-printed with white and brown offset inks, pressed one by one using an old engraving press.

Livret éducatif - Musée d'Archéologie Nationale
06.2023
Riso printing

Booklet created in partnership with the National Archaeology Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Quintal Atelier, on the occasion of the renovation of their gallery focusing on the Paleolithic period.

This gallery is primarily visited by elementary school groups, which defined our target audience. During this project, we worked around a theme, 'Tools and materials appropriate for art during the Paleolithic period.' During this era, all tools intersect with each other, so we conducted research before initiating the graphic design. To best convey our theme, we decided to work around the concept of 'touch,' a significant sensory notion for children but also for Paleolithic humans who engaged with the world using their hands.

Passages
06.2022
film photography & editorial

Photographic fanzine 'Passages' created in collaboration with Sarah Garraud. This photographic work captures the daily journey and the pathways taken during post-work evening escapades.

From Orsay to the outskirts of the 13th arrondissement, all detours are allowed. From the riverbanks to the Olympiades neighborhood, through the Luxembourg Gardens and along Boulevard Saint-Michel, sometimes Rivoli, often Panthéon. It's a photo safari in the heart of Paris, and an initiatory - sometimes clumsy - approach to analog photography that freezes unique moments on our film, leaving a trace of our ever-evolving city.