N
Neu
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‘02 Designed in
utraface Designed by Christan Schwartz
Released through House Industries
Contains qualities of both humanist and geometric classifications
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“Neutraface was an ambitious project to typographically complet
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o design the most
te sans serif family ever.” Christian Schwartz
Neutraface is a geometric san-serif
typeface designed in 2002, released by House Industries, an American type foundry. Christian Schwartz designed Neutraface based on the principals and design of Richard Neutra. “Neutra is considered to be one of modernism’s most important architects.” Shwartz designed Neutraface in a year, with assistance in art direction from Ken Barber and Andy Cruz who are apart of House Industries. Neutraface was originally designed as a display and headline typeface. Later, Neutraface Text was created to compliment its display counterpart. Neutraface Text includes a larger x-height and increased stroke contrast for better readability in text settings. Schwartz created an entire alphabet using limited source imagery and added a complentary lowercase that did not previously exist. Richard Neutra had specific attention to detail that included his selection of signage for his buildings, he specified lettering that was open and unobtrusive, the same characteristics he used while designing his buildings. “House Industries brings the same linear geometry to Neutraface without sacrificing an unmistakably warm and human feel.” Neutraface can also be classified as a humanist san serif typeface.
Christian Schwartz is an American
type-designer and typography consultant based in New York City. Schwartz is a graduate of the Communication Design program at Carnegie Mellon University. He first started his career working at MetaDesign Berlin, during his time there he developed logos for Volkswagen and other corporations. Schwartz returned the the United States in 1999 and spent two years working for The Font Bureau, Inc. in Boston. In 2001 he set out on his own to find new direction as a type designer. He started Orange Italic with product designer Dino Sanchez and most recently Schwartzco Inc. Schwartz has produced 29 typefaces, such as Farnham, Fritz, Local Gothic. He has released fonts with Village, FontFont, Emigre. Schwartz also created Neutraface, released by House Industries. Schwartz has been given several awards including The Prix Charles Peignot in 2007 for “an outstanding contribution to the field of type design”
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Cap Line
X-Height Base Line
Neutraface was originally created to
be a typeface used for display and headings even though a text version was created, I believe the best features of the typeface are not as noticable when the text is smaller and in larger groups. I think the uniquness of the typeface is the lower x-height of the lowercase letters, and that is raised in the text version. I believe it still works best for display. This typeface is unique because it fits into two different classifications. It is a geometric san serif because of its geometric forms based on architecture, but this typeface is also humanisitc because the architecture it was based on has a warm and human feel, that was brought into the design if Neutraface.
Neu Stem The primary vertical stroke of a letter
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Ascender
Terminal
Any part of a lowercase letter that extends above the x-height.
The end of a stroke that lacks a serif
utraface Shoulder A curved stroke origionating from the stem
A
Counter Closed or partially enclosed circular negative space of certain letters
Apex The highest point or peek of a letter
Cross Bar The middle stroke of uppercase letters
66 77 88 99 00
DISPLAY
Neutra Neutra VS TEXT
Neutraface Text was enhanced for better readability in text settings.
increased x-height. Other differences include; Increased tapering in the junctions of strokes The most noticable differnece of the text version is the
and ink trapes at critical vertices to compensate for ink gain.
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Neutraface Display Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
Neutraface Text Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
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Designed by Amber Webster KCAI 2013