BBB (Bye Bye Binary) are a collective made up of a range of multi disciplinary practitioners based across Brussels, Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Saint-Etienne in France ^[1]. The collective is made up of 29 members ^[2]. BBB was formed after a joint typography workshop class at the École de Recherche Graphique^[3] and the La Cambre in Brussels, Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Saint Etienne. ^[4]

BBB’s work focuses on inclusive, modern typography and design that challenges gender norms particularly relating to the French language and its gendered language forms. All in an aim to bring queer people closer to a sense of belonging and security in France in relation to language. ^[4]

The Typothéque collection is a free font library that collects exclusively inclusive, nonbinary and post binary. The fonts in the library vary from sans serif fonts, to display and script; Each font has a range of carefully curated and designed ligatures to go along with it. Along side these designed typefaces BBB have also gone about redesigning old typefaces such as Baskerville to BBB Baskervvol updated to have inclusive ligatures and inclusive french language.

How these fonts in the library go about bringing a more inclusive French language is that they have been encoded in such a way to allow automatic replacement of gendered forms of French their ‘QUIN’ encoding system ensures this. Additionally their ‘CUTE' (Conditions d’Utilisation Typographique Engageantes) establishes ethical guidelines for using their fonts, ensuring these tools are employed in ways that support LGBTQIA+ communities and resist “Queer-Washing”  

Members have also gone beyond just the ‘Typothéque collection’ and published books about the subject of Inclusive writing such as Camille Circlude. Who released ‘Post Binary Typography Beyond Inclusive Writing’^[5] the book looks at the emergence of Inclusive and non-binary writing to outline the beginnings of post binary approaches to typography. ^[6]

BBB’s work extends beyond graphic design to include the organisation of workshops and exhibitions to introduce audiences to non-binary and post binary typography practices. An example is lae Collective which highlighted their typographic experiments while encourages collaborative engagement. The lae Collective highlights their collaborative methods inspired by the method of the “exquisite Corpse” a game in which creators sequentially build up upon each other’s contributions. ^[1] This approach embodies their ethos of shared authorship and, rejecting traditional hierarchies in design. This method allows each creator to expand on prior work, resulting in deeply interconnected and innovative designs.

• LSD n.2: a typographic issue Camille Circlude, member of the BBB collective, unveils some specimens ^[7]
• Censored Magazine #5Intimate and political archive BBB member Clara Sambot imagined a series of inclusive ligatures added to the free font NotCourierSans designed by Ludi Loiseau (BBB/OSP). ^[7]
• Interview with Diane Moquet at jerk off festival Invited by the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles for the Jerk Off festival in September 2021 for a Queer-bloc* (of texts, printed, pasted, chanted,…), Bye Bye Binary answered Diane Moquet’s questions for this interview published in the Absys magazine. ^[7]
• steps: 259 Optical effects ' Following the media coverage of Tristan Bartolini’s typographic work and the Bye Bye Binary press release indicating that it was a wider movement than the isolated figure of a genius^[7], the magazine Etapes devoted a special dossier to BBB, allowing to re-launch the visibility of pre-existing work in the field of “inclusive” typography. An interview conducted by Clara Debailly.'