Edo Smitschuijzen
extract from News and Notes, AGI Congress, Helsinki, November 2003

Catherine Zask is undeniably French and quite charismatic. Her approach to design is that of an artist. A designer does a job employing visual means, an artist creates a personal visual universe. That’s what Catherine does. A grant for the Prix the Rome some time ago was spent in cutting traditional letter strokes apart and rearrange the loose elements in a different order. The results are very intriguing, like messages coming from a different civilization. However the function is rather limited, nobody understands the meaning of this script, except Catherine perhaps. Her letter experiments got ‘wings’when a young computer wizard became her personal assistant. Handcraft was replaced by digital speed and efficiency. Her output exploded. Catherine was also invited to become part of the poster-crowd. Her artist approach paid off handsomely when applied to this medium. She showed very fresh and personal typographic work.