Two significant encounters guided my approach to punchcutting, Raymond Stanley Nelson in Virginia and Richard Ärlin in Sweden, both punchcutters, were generous enough to welcome me in their respective workshops and to transmit to me their visions of this craft.

It was also during these meetings that I was able to take the extent of what Nelly Gable had passed on to me. A stubborn rigor, a very French rigor, coming from the foundry Deberny & Peignot. 

For having spent as much time in books as at the workbench, I understood the key role that manuals have played for these two punchcutters, almost self-taught, at a time in history when the holders of this know-how were becoming rare. These experiences convinced me of the value and importance of transmitting the skills through a book. The book, even if it does not replace the man, has the advantage of lasting in time.
"Dessins de geste" (drawing the movement) followed closely after these meetings.