GEOMETRIC
TYPEFACES
Geometric Sans-Serifs are those faces that are based on strict geometric forms. The individual letter forms of a Geometric Sans often have strokes that are all the same width and frequently evidence a kind of Òless is moreÓminimalism in their design. At their best, Geometric Sans are clear, objective, modern, universal; at their worst, cold, impersonal, boring.
The negative sp within the lowe closely resembl
Helvetica’s characters always have vertical or horizontal terminations on their strokes,
R Recta e t + The original Helvetica was designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry (Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei). Haas was controlled by the type foundry Stempel, which was in turn controlled by Linotype. Helvetica was originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk, and was closely based on Schelter-Grotesk. It was created specifically to be neutral, to not give any impression or have any meaning in itself. This neutrality was paramount, and based on the idea that type itself should give no meaning.
neutral adaptable
pace contained ercase “a� les a teardrop.
legible It remains legible when in motion, one reason it’s popular for signage and automaker and airline logos.
safe
angle n g le It has monotone stroke weights.
Cap height
x-height
Baseline
Light Regular Bold
Helvetica is as much about the negative space surrounding the letters than about the lines that make up the characters themselves.
The ne xt
a c i t e v l He The strength of Helvetica with the feeling of Futura is shown in the lowercase ‘i’ dot .It is an exception, a perfect circle over the Cap height.
Circl
It works well f or s cre en
Fairly large x-height
The character shapes are fairly symmetrical
Open, circular forms, which give it a “friendly” appearance, especially in the lowercase.
s
exibility at fl gre as Cap height
x-height
ack Light R l B
xtrabo E ld old
y
ular Mediu eg
Proxima ib Sem old B
Baseline
Nova
m
le
It h
Proxima Nova (2005) bridges the gap between typefaces like Futura and Akzidenz Grotesk. The result is a hybrid that combines modern proportions with a geometric appearance. Mark Simmonson originally released it in 1994 as Proxima Sans (now discontinued). He expanded the original six fonts (three weights with italics) into a full-featured and versatile family of 48 fonts (eight weights in three widths with italics). In the last few years, Proxima Nova has become one of the most popular web fonts, in use on twenty-five thousands websites around the world.
d e
c t n n Fo a g l n n i a is a t r B le ve C e Ad Th
Cap height
x-height
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Circular counterspace.
Monoweight strokes.
M
B ED O
The ascender rise above the Cap height line.
IU LD M
FU
TU
RA
is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It was designed as a contribution on the New Frankfurt-project. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative of visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of Since the crossbar of the lower case "e" in Futura is parallel to the 1919–33.It was commissioned as a typeface by baseline, then it is positioned slightly above the median point the Bauer Type Foundry, in reaction to Ludwig & of the x-height. As a result, the terminal of the "e" is not Mayer's seminal horizontal, but diagonal. Futura has an appearance of efficiency and forwardness. Although Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, he shared of its idioms and believed that a modern typeface should express modern models, rather than be a revival of a previous design. Renner's design rejected the approach of most previous sans-serif designs (now often called grotesques), which were based on the models of signpaint
Rounded letters are nearly circular
Perfect symmetry on geometric letters
Partially closed but large aperture
Modern geometric “a� teardrop
Terminals follow natural path of strokes
Very slig thinnin where cur strokes m stem
100 100
Museo Sans
ght ng rved meet
The design of Museo (2008) was fairly straight forward. I remember a few things that really determined the. Museo looked a bit like some piece of bent metal wire so I thought of making the stroke contrast as low as possible and I also wanted to keep the shapes simple like for instance a nice round geometric “O”. Because of that stroke’s weight and because of the fact that I wanted a fairly heavy Museo weight it seemed very difficult to me to make a heavy lowercase. That’s the reason why
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500 5 0500 700 700 900
900
Cap height
x-height
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