Matrix 4.3 by Linotype GmbH

dnho Where do Old

here do Old E

Hopyl Typeface

Great Primer Black from Caslon

Double Pica Black from Caslon

Type sample from Fleischmann

LINOTYPE MATRIX

Dear Friends from Linotype, ecently, I have become more familiar with the Ancient Black type and have followed its tracks back to handwriting styles from Northern France and the Netherlands. What the printer Wolfgang Hopyl released in Paris in 1504 as a run-of-the-mill Textura type simply must have had predecessors. Surely enough, occurrences of some of its typical elements are found as early as the mid14th century; it is amazing how some of these old, flamboyant forms managed to keep a foothold on type design, even into more recent times. For instance, there was Hendrik van den Keere’s 1585 true-to-thesource re-cut of the design for Christophe Plantin in Antwerp, called Flamand. In London, William Caslon’s 1742 Black and Vincent Figgins’ 1815 Black Letter followed. Throughout the remaining 19th and early20th centuries, decorative derivatives continued to appear on the market, the most faithful of which included the Stephenson, Blake & Co’s Ancient Black, and Morris Fuller Benton and Joseph W. Phinney’s Cloister Black from ATF. Bauer’s Manuskript-Gotisch and Monotype’s Old English, which are revivals of Caslon’s approach, b elong in this category as well. Almost identical to these are the Black Letter Type and Modern English Fraktur that Edward Johnston presented in his book Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering.

Text set in Impressum™, 10 pt.

k ah

r oz p English typefaces... In 1821, D&G Bruce in New York brought

out a Black, which followed the abovementioned French models. But the practical Americans seemed to be more concerned with optimal legibility, and their design decisions reflected this: the capital E became straight, not round; a capital I was designed—previous examples tended to include only the capital J; the capital N took a more serif-like form and lost its relationship with the capital M; the same occurred with the capital V, to differentiate it from the capital U and capital W; capital X, Y, and Z also became more like serif letters. Carter in Boston released this same combination in 1825.

erhaps the oldest magazine masthead in the United States to use Old English lettering was Rounds’ Printers’ Cabinet (Number 1, Issue 1 of 1, December 1856). As is well known, the New York Times nameplate still sports Old English letters— with a modified capital N. Morris Fuller Benton adopted this now-familiar sequence in 1901 for his lightweight design, Wedding Text, and its sister, Engravers Old English. These appeared soon thereafter around the world under several different names, including Linotext.

Linotext®

ABCDEF abcdefghijk Old English™

ABCDEF abcdefghijk N tors ote: i d

Y E

We received this wonderful

letter from the German design theorist Max Bollwage before

we ran the article on blackletter specimens in the Gutenberg

Museum Library in the last issue of the Linotype Matrix (Issue 4.2, May 2006). While that

article compared an image of

William Caslon’s Black with the contemporary digital font Old English, it did not go into the

origins of the Textura letterform. We hope that you find that this

letter offers a great addendum.

LINOTYPE MATRIX

After all this, one can justifiably say that the Lady Old English is actually a Madame; and she hasn’t changed her looks a bit in 500 years!

hg j g ?

...come from

.............Old English ...................Linotext

This was one branch of Old Englishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

development; the second ran through Holland onward to England. It made use of modified capital letters. During the 16th century the Textura lost ground in France to serif typefaces; in Germany, Schwabacher and Fraktur types displaced it as well. But it kept its popularity in the Netherlands, especially for religious literature among Protestants. Hendrik van the Keere became the most successful punch cutter in the Netherlands during the second half of the 16th century. He mixed together forms that were partially French with others that were native to the Netherlands. By 1613, the Textura, as printed by Abraham van Herwijck in Utrecht, reached its final Dutch form. This form would continue to be used by Fleischmann in his 1744 Textura Duits,

LINOTYPE MATRIX

ygj

Old English typefaces remain one of the most sought-after historical typeface styles, and are popular members of the Linotype Library, as well as many designers’ font palettes.

and by Rosart in his Textura Flamand for Enschedé in 1768. The Dutch-style Textura migrated to England, where it could be seen later in London, and then to the United States. In 1812, the Binny & Ronaldson foundry sold typefaces of this kind, but I cannot at the moment say for certain if they cast them themselves as well. However, after this period, the modified French styles described earlier became firmly established as the model to be used.

his style of type—which has hardly changed over 500 years—is becoming increasingly popular, not only in England and America, but also in Germany, as far as I can tell. This is probably due to its more legible capitals [compared with other blackletters], as well as its availability on computers. Here in Germany, Old English-style type is even beginning to replace Fraktur on beer labels and on bar signage. Even in Spain, one sees these letters now on every corner—they even use them for fashion and jewelry stores. This must be because the character of Old English is so decorative.

I hope that you have been well served with these brief lines. Sincerely yours, Max Bollwage

Extremes abound in the world of design specıfication. Text set in Onyx™, 80 pt.

Skinny B

Bernhard

Bernhard Bold Condensed

industrial gothic Industrial Gothic™ Double Line

Types

Exclamation point set in Bordeaux™ Roman, 1000 pt.

Title set in ITC Roswell™ Two, 300 pt.

On posters, the more

text that one has to set, or the taller a designer wants their headline to be, the more condensed the chosen letterforms! Text set in Gill Sans™ Bold Extra Condensed, 84 and 67 pt.

SUP J

Franklin Gothic Franklin Gothic™ Demi Extra Compressed

SERENGETTI Impact NORDICA

ITC Serengetti™

K L Romantica

Impact™

M Antique N Olive O P Linotype Nordica™ Regular

Romantica™ Extra Condensed

LIN OTYPE M ATRIX

Antique Olive Bold Condensed

UPER DIEt lean SliM Pritchard™, 440 pt.

Bordeaux™ Roman, 480 pt.

Facade™ Condensed, 207 pt.

Narrower faces may be part and parcel of large font families, or they can be a type designer’s only child, spectacular but unique. Text set in Morris Sans™ Light Condensed, 30 pt.

tight-f Q R S T Smart Sans™ Light, 407 pt.

Wil ow

Willow™ Light

HELVETICA OCTANE

U V INDUSTRIA

Helvetica® Ultra Compressed

W BuffaloX Gal Y Z Linotype Octane™ Regular

Industria® Solid

LINOTYPE MATR IX

Buffalo Gal™ Regular

fitting TALLER? Binner Gothic™, 400 pt.

Text set in Monotype Grotesque™ Extra Condensed, 51 pt.

LIN OTYPE MATR IX

These pages illustrate the range of styles that may be used within compressed spaces. More variety than one would expect

Henrique Nardi

LINOTYPE MATRIX

Augustine Romaine, Claude Garamont, a magnificent letter, one of Plantinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s staple types from 1564.

THE PLANTIN –MORETUS MUSEUM

TYPE HISTORY ALIVE BY CLAUDIO ROCHA

In the city of Antwerp, a pre-eminent study and documentation center for the history and art of books from the ninth through to the 19th century may be found. The Plantin-Moretus Museum collections comprises 638 manuscripts dating from the ninth to 17th centuries, 154 incunabula, and no fewer than 25,000 volumes dating from before 1800. The museum was founded in 1877, about one year after the closing of the prestigious Officina Plantiniana, a printing and publishing house that had operated continually since the 16th century. The city of Antwerp, with the support of the Belgian

government, acquired the grounds, buildings, workshops, tools, archive, stock, library, art collections, and household effects. After a number of adaptations, this unique combination of patrician residence and business is unrivalled; it remains the only extant printing and publishing office from the Renaissance and Baroque period, peerless among the typographic museums of the world. It contains original workrooms— typefoundry, type stores, and a printing workshop—preserved just as they were in the 16th and 17th centuries, making this museum an international Mecca for typographers and book specialists.

Cristopher Plantin (Christophe Plantin, or Christoffel Plantijn in Dutch; born ca. 1520 in Saint-Avertin, near Tours, France; died on July 1, 1589, in Antwerp)

13 LINOTYPE MATRIX

Plantin was one of the most important printer/publishers during the second half of the 16th century, and therefore also a great pioneer of Western civilization. He was at the head of his printing office, known as the Golden Compasses, during its first 34 years. In 1567 he published the Index Characterum, with specimens of the Officina Plantiniana types, the first book of this kind. From his printed type proofs we know that in 1585 Plantin had over ninety different fonts to choose from. He built up such a large stock that his successors, the Moretuses, barely needed to buy newly created fonts.

Henrique Nardi

Garamond's punches: Grosses Capitales Extraordinaire, left unfinished by Claude Garamont in 1561 and finished by Sabon and Van den Keere. Plantin used these magnificent capitals from 1567 as titling and as initials.

LINOTYPE MATRIX

Civilité Granjon: Detail from Plantin’s 1567 Index Characterum, Mediane Lettre Francoise. Robert Granjon cut in 1556 or 57 the original civilité type, used by Plantin from 1558. The original size is 11,3 pica points.

Inside the museum, an exquisite collection of 16th century punches and matrices, along with examples and documentation of the various stages of early type manufacture, appear on display. The Plantin–Moretus Museum still retains about 4,500 punches and 20,500 matrices from that century, required for the production of approximately 80 different types, including Greek, Hebrew, Syrian and Ethiopian letters. And the stock of type was a printing house’s most valuable asset! The intense production of books—an average of 1,250 sheets were printed each day—in the letterpress printing system used to damage the metal type and thereby affect the quality of the printed page as well. In order to keep the high standard of his books, Plantin decided to start founding type. During the first half of the 17th century, Balthasar I Moretus (1574–1641) installed a type foundry in the Plantin household.

Gabriel Lovato

La Plus Grande Romaine, Hendrik Van den Keere, Sand casted letters from Van den Keere’s boxwood pattern letters. 83 pica points.

Calviac’s Civile Honesteté pour les Enfants (...), to whom Granjon allowed use of these fonts.” Granjon’s return to France saw the arrival of the punchcutter Hendrik Van Den Keere (ca. 1540–80) from Ghent. The speciality of this great 16th century Flemish typographer was the Flamande, or Flemish gothic letter type that is among the most beautiful of its kind. Another fundamental source of research are the types created by Claude Garamond. Upon his death in 1561, Plantin bought many of Garamond’s punches and matrices, sold by the widow of this famous French punchcutter. For decades, the museum has been open for researchers, allowing them to study its matrices, type specimens, printed books, and manuscripts. The list includes F.H. Pierpoint, Harry Carter, Mike Parker, Matthew Carter, and more recently Robert Slimbach, Justin Howes, and Fred Smeijers, just to name a few.

15 LINOTYPE MATRIX

By the end of the 15th century, typographic specialists were already available, and Plantin bought material from the great typographers of his time: François Guyot, Ameet Tavernier, Claude Garamond, Robert Granjon, Hendrik Van den Keere and others. Among these, the French punchcutter Robert Granjon (1513–1589) had a special arrangement. During his long stay in Antwerp, he worked regularly on assignments for Christopher Plantin, who introduced the beautiful 16th century civilité letter into the Low Countries. His civilité types were a rendering of a French blacklettter cursive handwriting of that time. According to Daniel Berkeley Updike, in his book Printing Types—Their History, Forms and Use, “such types were commonly called caractères de civilité, because [they were] early employed in two popular books for children—Louveau’s translation from Erasmus, La Civilité Puérile distribuée par petitz chapitres et sommaires, and Gilbert de

The foundry workshop has remained completely intact. The smelting furnaces, and all the tools of the founders, evoke the impression that the last workman just left!

abcdefgh ABC&Z!

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvxyz

LINOTYPE M ATRIX

Plantin™ Light Light Italic Regular Italic Semibold Semibold Italic Bold Bold Italic Bold Condensed

The North American typographer Frank Hinman Pierpoint (1860–1937) is responsible for recutting the typeface we now call Plantin. The genesis of his typeface started on a business trip to Antwerp, where he visited the Plantin–Moretus Museum. Launched by Monotype in 1913, it was one of the first typefaces to be specifically produced for mechanical setting. By adapting the antique types for contemporary needs, Pierpoint and the Monotype craftsmen mixed a love and understanding of 16th century type with a healthy dose of poetic license. The classic Old Style text design was preserved in its basic struc-

Some of the type cases are kept in the printing room. The greatest care was devoted to the printing. The books published by the Officina Plantiniana are true typographic gems.

abcdefgh ABC&Z! abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvxyz

ITC Galliard™ Roman Italic Bold Bold Italic

Black Black Italic Ultra Ultra Italic

17 LINOTYPE M ATRIX

ture, but newfound strength and body were added to this delicate frame. In the 1950s, Mathew Carter and Mike Parker were among the Plantin–Moretus’s visitors. In the book The Art of Matthew Carter, Margaret Re describes the genesis of the Galliard typeface, conceived after he became familiar with the material in the Plantin–Moretus Museum: “Carter, while interning at Enschedé (1955–1956), traveled from Haarlem to Antwerp on at least two occasions to visit his father, who as Oxford University Press archivist was researching the Fell Types and those of Plantin’s foundry. On those weekend visits, Carter

LINOTYPE MATR IX

worked with his father in a small room in the attic of the museum, cleaning and identifying type matrices and punches that had not been touched since being packed away in the 16th century. In 1957, Parker, recently graduated from Yale, spent a year at the museum sorting, cataloging, and relating the matrices and punches to Plantin’s records. On a 1960 visit to New York, Carter met Mike Parker, and in 1965 he joined Parker, then Director of Typographic Development at Mergenthaler Linotype in New york, to consider if any of the Old Style type treasures found at Plantin–Moretus would make a successful contemporary face for photocomposition. Carter and Parker immediately settled on the work of Robert Granjon.” The result of this project would become Galliard, later distributed as ITC Galliard. Matthew Carter calls Galliard, which is not tied to any specific Granjon typeface, an anthology of Granjon’s work: a reinterpretation of the sum of Granjon’s mature style with the added consideration of the range of type weight, slope and alternative characters needed in a modern family.

The printng room with the 17th and 18th century printing presses (left) and the type cases.

The type stock: The upper shelves are loaded with type cases, which contains all the letters from a particular alphabet in a given fount and size. From here, typesetters would fetch the type case they needed for a particular printing job. Reserve lead type is stored on the botton shelves, still in its original wrapping paper.

Guy Hutsebaut, Technical Expert of the Museum, and Adrian Frutiger during a visit. This occurred several years ago, while a documentary of his life's work was in production. Frutiger was very inspired by classical French Renaissance punchcutters like Claude Garamond and Robert Granjon, but also by Van den Keere, the Flemish artist.

Justin Howes intended to come and work on a casting project for half a year in the museum, but he unfortunately passed away the night before leaving London. Fred Smeijers took over the project. Justin Howes was a type designer, typographer, historian and curator of The Type Museum in London. His typographic work included the ITC Founder’s Caslon™ series of typefaces that revived with great accuracy and sensitivity the works of the original Caslon family. Bibliographical references: About Types, Books and Prints, published by the Plantin–Moretus Museum and City Prints Gallery. Plantin, from the Hidden Gems section at www. fonts.com, Monotype Imaging, Inc. Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing Types—Their History, Forms and Use, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2001. Galliard: A Modern Revival of The Types of Robert Granjon, Visible Language 19, 1985. Grateful acknowlegements to Guy Hutsebaut and Patricia Kolsteeg from the Plantin–Moretus Museum, who gave support for this article, including permission to reproduce texts and images from the museum’s collection.

Text set in ITC Galliard, 11pt.

19 LINOTYPE MATR IX

The main facade of the Museum, on the Vrijdagmarkt, looks just as it did in the 18th century.

Letters from Amsterdam During a large part of the 20th century, Lettergieterij “Amsterdam” (Amsterdam Typefoundry, also known as Tetterode) was the Netherlands’ leading supplier of “all things needed to print.” Under its artistic advisors Sjoerd de Roos and Dick Dooijes, it produced a number of remarkably successful typefaces—now largely forgotten. The “L.A..,” as Dutch printers liked to call it, was also one of Linotype’s most loyal partners during rough times. A brief history by the author of Dutch Type.

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Preceding spread Preceding all of Sjoerd H. de Roos’s printing types, the title page he hand-lettered for the 1910 “Sketch book” of the Dutch Writers’ Guild has certain features in common with his later text faces, such as Dutch Mediaeval and Erasmus. Preceding spread Sjoerd de Roos’s Ella Cursief from 1916 was based on a style of commercial lettering, made with the Redis pen, or “Speedball,” that was popular in the 1910s. “Breede Athenienne” (Wide Anthenian), reproduced from the “fantasy type” section of the monumental 1916 catalogue.

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Type catalogue from ca. 1907, shortly after the foundry had been renamed “Lettergieterij ‘Amsterdam’ voorheen [=formerly] N. Tetterode.” Its binding is probably the most luscious one ever issued by the firm. Collection Jan Tholenaar, Amsterdam.

In this age of cross-platform digital typography, we sometimes forget how, for many decades, typographic choices were inseperable from decisions made about machines. Type, as well as the quality and flexibility of composition, depended on hardware—costly standalone systems that were often incompatible with those of the competition. Similarly, the fate of many companies in the printing and pre-press business depended first and foremost on the success of their machines (though of course, the availability of good typefaces could influence that success). Linotype was only one of many companies—albeit one of the most influential—that had to radically rethink its future with the advent of new technologies. Many local companies also had to reinvent themselves a couple of times over. One such firm is Tetterode in Amsterdam—formerly the Amsterdam Type Foundry.

Competition in the 19th century

he firm’s founding father was Nicolaas Tetterode, a businessman born in Amsterdam in 1816 who ran a Rotterdam company that traded dried fish and cod-liver oil. Tetterode entered the printing business in 1851 when, on a hunch, he bought the typefounding department of the Broese publishing company in Breda. He developed a keen interest in type, and some years later acquired the Amsterdam typefoundry De Passe & Menne. This prompted him to move the company to his native city and bid the fish trade goodbye. By then, the Tetterode foundry had already become a serious competitor to the Netherlands’ largest printing and typefounding company, J. Enschedé in Haarlem. The two firms soon collided. Enschedé had made a habit of copying existing typefaces by means of electrotyping—a new chemical process developed to make copies of metal objects. Enschedé

used this technique to “borrow” designs developed by others. When Tetterode bought some Egyptian types in England, he rightly felt that in doing so he had acquired the “moral privilege” to exclusively sell these fonts in the Netherlands—even if the Netherlands had no copyright laws for type. Yet Tetterode’s trendy Egyptians were soon duplicated and marketed by several other foundries, including Enschedé (which could be considered the market leader). “The generally accepted principle,” Tetterode sarcastically wrote in a pamphlet, “was that this robbery fell under the heading of loyal competition.” Enschedé seems to have been determined to crush the newcomer. In 1861 they reduced their prices by 30 percent—a drastic measure aimed at holding on to the lion’s share of the type market. In spite of these setbacks, the Tetterode Typefoundry flourished and within a couple of decades became Enschedé’s sole competitor. The fierce rivalry between the two foundries was to remain a constant factor well into the 20th century. Tetterode initally gained ground by developing new products. His company became the main manufacturer of “exotic” typefaces, including Buginese, Battak, Javanese, Makassar, Malaysian, and Chinese. There was a growing market for these scripts in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), a region with which Nicolaas Tetterode was familiar, having travelled there as a young man. Diversification was another aspect of the firm’s business strategy. Tetterode began importing and distributing printing presses and other kinds of machinery. In 1892, Nicolaas Tetterode retired and the company changed its name to “Lettergieterij Amsterdam voorheen N. Tetterode” (Amsterdam Typefoundry, formerly N. Tetterode).

The era of De Roos

U LINOTYPE MATR IX

p until the early 1900s, the Amsterdam Typefoundry did not pay much attention to the aesthetic aspects of the craft. When a new typeface was introduced, it was usually a face of German or English origin with a new name. This changed after 1907, when the company hired Sjoerd H. De Roos as its artistic consultant. De Roos’ roots were in Nieuwe Kunst (“new art”), a Dutch movement inspired by the British Arts and Crafts movement. De Roos, who as a typographer was largely self-taught, had

shown remarkable talent in book design and lettering. Although his idealistic views would often collide with the blatantly commercial policy of the managers at the Typefoundry, he single-handedly set new standards for type design and typography in the Netherlands. De Roos’ first typefaces were finger exercises: a Javanese script, under the supervision of a professor of oriental linguistics, and an Art Nouveau-like titling alphabet. Then, on New Year’s Day 1912, the Amsterdam Typefoundry introduced his Hollandsche Mediaeval (Dutch Mediaeval), the first new Dutch text face in about 100 years. Hollandsche Mediaeval was a sturdy, round book face in the turn-of-thecentury tradition of Cheltenham and Nordische Antiqua, vaguely modelled on Jenson’s type. It took the Dutch and Flemish printing world by storm, and practically became the default Dutch text face for decades to come. It was so widespread that during the 1940–45 Nazi occupation of the Netherlands it became the prefered typeface for clandestine books and pamphlets—because of its ubiquity, it could not be traced back to any particular printer. Although some of De Roos’ subsequent designs— notably Erasmus and De Roos Romein—were more elegant and simple than his first text face, the success of Hollandsche Mediaeval was never matched. Nor did any of his typefaces remain fashionable after 1950: none of his romans is currently available in digital form. There are two exceptions. Monotype distributes a digital version of Hollandsche Mediaeval in two weights (Hollandse Mediaeval Regular and Bold). And then there is Nobel. A pseudo-constructivist reworking of Berthold Grotesque (made under De Roos’ reluctant supervision, because his bosses asked for a geometric sans to compete with Futura®) Nobel is now available in two different, well-crafted digital versions. Some interesting display faces were drawn during De Roos’ reign. There was Das Antieke, a Germanstyle advertising face designed by the Dutch commercial artist Pieter Das, which was later expanded into the Success family. The quirky, geometric Indépendant was made at the firm’s Brussels subsidiary, Plantin by Colette and Dufour. Most famously, there was Jan Tschichold’s very first printing typeface, Transito, designed along the lines of Bayer’s and Albers’ Bauhaus alphabets. De Roos himself contributed Libra, an uncial (still available today) and its wacky, unclassifiable monoline sans-serif companion, Simplex. Like Nobel and several other typefaces attributed to De Roos, Simplex was largely drawn by his assistant Dick Dooijes.

Top to Bottom: One of the very first showings of Dutch Mediaeval, De Roosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landmark typeface, in the monumental Amsterdam Typefoundry catalogue designed by De Roos and published in 1916.

45 LINOTYPE MATR IX

Title page from the brochure announcing the Egmont typeface. The booklet was published in 1936 by Intertype Corporation in Brooklyn, a partner to the Amsterdam Typefoundry.

Typographic culture

Simplex, issued in 1940, was the monoline sans-serif version of De Roos’s popular uncial Libra. Dick Dooijes, who did the drawings for Simplex, later wrote: “From the start, it seemed like a strange fabrication...and that is was it was.” Nevertheless, the company chose to use it for its logo. Transito, issued in 1929, was Jan Tschichold’s very first published typeface. It was clearly inspired by experimental stencil alphabets drawn at the Bauhaus by Josef Albers and others from c. 1926 onwards, and is very similar to Paul Renner’s Futura Black (1929). Indépendant, designed around 1929 by G. Colette and J. Dufour for Etablissements “Plantin,” the Amsterdam Typefoundry’s Brussels subsidiary. Described by Ruari McLean as having ‘some built-in illegibility’ (Manual of Typography, 1980).

47 LINOTYPE MATR IX

Top to Bottom:

lthough the firm’s official name was Lettergieterij “Amsterdam” (or L.A.), many people kept referring to it as “Tetterode.” It sort of made sense, because selling type was by no means its only business. True to the device introduced by Nicolaas Tetterode, “All that’s needed to print,” the company sold typesetting equipment and printing presses, as well as machines for cutting, folding, glueing and binding. For several decades during the early and mid-20th century, the firm held a virtual monopoly in the niche of small printing workshops. As Dutch agent of Intertype—Linotype’s main competitor—Tetterode also had a large share in the market of hot metal typecasting machines and matrices. These are reasons why many of their typefaces became immediately (albeit briefly) successful. As typographer Huib van Krimpen wrote, “Tetterode’s tactics were simple and effective. Roughly once every year or eighteen months a new typeface—preferably a jobbing face—was brought out, usually in the form of a special offer, and sold to the majority of Dutch printers, particularly smallish shops. Thus, a shortlived fashion was created, and after a year or a year and a half, the design was no longer popular, the type was worn out, and a new one was launched to take its place.” Like before, many of these typefaces were licensed from German and American foundries and often issued under a new name. It was largely the merit of Sjoerd de Roos and his successors that in spite of this policy, the Amsterdam Typefoundry made a number of significant contributions to typographic culture in the Netherlands. Sjoerd de Roos took early retirement shortly after the German invasion of Holland in 1940. Work was getting scarce and he wanted to make sure that Dick Dooijes, who had a young family to feed, could take over his position as head of the Foundry’s drawing department. An energetic and socially committed designer, Dooijes was later joined by the book historian G.W. Ovink, an internationally esteemed author of astute essays on the history and the technicalities of type and typography who became the company’s intellectual conscience. Some of the most interesting aspects of the Typefoundry’s post-war policy was the outcome of the ongoing dialogue between Ovink and Dooijes. Jointly, they kept alive the legacy of De Roos, whose last typeface De Roos Romein was published in 1947. Under their joint impulse the

company issued a number of well-designed publications that enhanced Tetterode’s image, both locally and internationally, as somewhat of a cultural institution.

Type under Dooijes

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s in the De Roos era, decisions at the Amsterdam Typefoundry about what typefaces to develop were often made by its marketeers rather than its artistic advisors. In some cases, however, commercial and creative considerations proved compatible. This was certainly true for a number of script and titling faces presented between 1945 and 1960. Rondo was a successful script face based on hand lettering by the brilliant commercial artist Stefan Schlesinger; Dooijes completed the typeface during the war years after its designer had been arrested and deported by the Nazis. Reiner Script was produced after drawings by the Hungarian lettering artist Imre Reiner—it is probably that artist’s wackiest and most unpredictable typeface. Dutch typographer Henk Krijger drew the Raffia Initials; each of its characters was a stroke of genius—three strokes, in fact, meticulously intertwined to create intriguing, complex letterforms. Amazone, by in-house designer Leonard Smit, was one of the most time-consuming designs ever undertaken at the Foundry: a roundhand script that was painstakingly drawn and produced to connect without the need of any kerned letters (which would have made the font too vulnerable). With the exception of Raffia, each of these typefaces has been made available in digital form in the 1990s. One of the most ambitious and typographically interesting designs of the 1960s was Pascal, the first typeface by José Mendoza y Almeida. Partly based on drawings Mendoza’s father made in 1943, the typeface is a lucid and sensitive text face in the “glyphic” category. Recently, Neufville Digital in Barcelona has begun to reissue this excellent design as a digital font family. The late 1950s and 1960s were also Dick Dooijes’ most rewarding period as a type designer. Both of the large families that he designed were quite remarkable. Mercator, modelled after late-19th century grotesques, lacks the brilliance of Helvetica® or Univers®, but it is an interesting and different enough variation on that theme (and apparently was begun before either was shown in the press). Lectura

is a modernized renaissance roman that was made for phototypesetting, and disappeared together with that technology. It might be worth trying to revive it; its italic, notably, is elegant and original. For Dooijes, Lectura was a worthy final chord to his long career at the Amsterdam Typefoundry. In 1968, he resigned to become director of the Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam.

New technologies, new activities

any small printing shops in the Netherlands were reluctant to make the change to the new technology of phototypesetting. For quite a while, the Amsterdam Typefoundry continued its metal type-founding activities until, as late as the 1980s, that work was outsourced to the Neufville foundry in Barcelona. By then, the name “Amsterdam Typefoundry” had disappeared: the firm had become Bührmann-Tetterode in 1963 as a result of the merger with a large paper company. As the leading distributor of MAN Roland and Heidelberg offset presses, Bührmann-Tetterode remained a dominant player in the Dutch printing world throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The firm actively assisted printers in making the transition to photocomposition and, during the 1980s, took on a pioneering role as a supplier and advisor in the field of digital pre-press and workflow. In 1984, shortly before Linotype’s historic deal with Adobe to jointly develop PostScript technology, Tetterode became Linotype’s exclusive representative in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain. During that period, an important role was played by Tetterode’s PostScript and marketing specialist, Henk Gianotten, who became an energetic ambassador for Linotype as well as PostScript technology. Gianotten’s unrelenting efforts to introduce (and criticize) new technological standards, and to prepare customers as well as manufacturers for the unavoidable future, was rewarded by Linotype when, at his retirement in 2000, a new Bodoni revival designed by Antonio Pace was named after him: Linotype Gianotten™. Meanwhile, there have been many more changes in the company structure of what once was the Amsterdam Typefoundry. In the 1990s, the Bührmann Holding group was established. Tetterode, the old name, became the name of the printing and pre-

Left To Right, Top to Bottom:

49 LINOTYPE M ATRIX

Rondo and Rondo Bold, based on hand-lettering by the commercial artist Stefan Schlesinger. After Schlesinger and his wife had been deported under the Nazi occupation in 1942, the typeface was completed with the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consent by Dick Dooijes. Rondo was released in 1944 and became very successful.

press division. The company’s impressive archive of printed matter, original designs, correspondence, and other objects relating to its past were bequeathed to the Amsterdam University Library. When the Library exhibited the Tetterode Collection in 2001, the company sponsored and published the catalogue, as proof of Tetterode’s ongoing commitment not just to the business but also to the art of printing and typography. Jan Middendorp

Text set in Garamond™ #3, 9.5 pt.

Note on the company name: What is the correct English translation of “Lettergieterij ‘Amsterdam?’” Type historian Mathieu Lommen uses “Typefoundry Amsterdam.” As in Dutch Type, I have chosen to write “Amsterdam Typefoundry” here, as this was the name used by the firm in several of its own English-language publications—and it sounds better, too.

Sources

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Jan Boterman, Sjaak Hubregtse et al., Sjoerd H. De Roos. Typograﬁsche geschriften 1907–1920. SDU uitgeverij, The Hague 1989 Dick Dooijes, Over de drukletterontwerpen van Sjoerd H. De Roos. Bührmann-Ubbens Papier, Zutphen 1987 Dick Dooijes, Mijn leven met letters. De Buitenkant, Amsterdam 1991 Albert Gerbel, “Nicolaas Tetterode,” published on the tetterode.nl website, 2006 (originally written for the Tetterode firm in 1992) Henk Gianotten, “How a Dutch trading company successfully converted their market from letterpress to offset.” Lecture delivered at the Kongress Internationaler Arbeitskreis Druck- und Mediengeschichte eV “200 Jahre Steindruck – 100 Jahre Offsetdruck – eine Erfolgsstory.” Carolus Museum, Valkenswaard (NL), 5–6 November 2004 (unpublished typescript). Plus a very informative e-mail exchange, and some interesting conversations. Thank you, Henk. Huib van Krimpen, “Type design in the Netherlands and the influence of the Enschedé Foundry,” Fine Print, vol. 15, no. 4 (1989) John A. Lane & Mathieu Lommen, “A history of the Lettergieterij ‘Amsterdam’ voorheen N. Tetterode (Typefoundry Amsterdam) 1851-1988,” in Dutch typefounders’ specimens. De Buitenkant, Amsterdam 1998 Mathieu Lommen et al., Een punt voor typografie. De Typograﬁsche Bibliotheek in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam. Tetterode, Amsterdam 2001 Jan Middendorp, Dutch Type. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam 2004

Left To Right, Top to Bottom: Type collection of the Amsterdam Typefoundry as shown in a 1960 advertisement. Detail from a design by Harm Hagedoorn. Mercator Light (c. 1959). Dick Dooijes’s Mercator was directly based on late 19th-century models. Work on the typeface was probably begun before other and more successful variations on the same theme, such as Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica) and Univers, were first published. Dooijes regarded the straight joint between the horizontal and vertical of the lowercase “a” as an important feature of his Mercator, resulting in a stronger horizontal continuity. Drawing from “Mijn leven met letters,” Amsterdam 1991. Following spread “One hundred years of typefounding in Amsterdam,” with a text by Ovink. Designed by Dick Elffers, one of the Netherland’s most prominent graphic designers of the postwar decades.

51 LINOTYPE M ATRIX

following spread Henk Krijger’s Raffia Initials (1952) was among the most idiosyncratic typefaces published by the Amsterdam Typefoundry.

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via logos or how to get to the octoberfest via reason Munich is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany and certainly one of the most desirable travel destinations in Europe, if not the world. Nearly 100 million people visit the capital of Bavaria each year, whether for pleasure or for business. Visitors from all over the world join the nearly 1.3 million inhabitants of Munich in making use of the many subway, bus and tram lines that make up the extensive public transportation system run by the Munich Transportation Corporation mvg. All these people depend on an effective wayfinding system.

M u n i c h i s o e t h m b u t i l G e r m a l e t r

v d e s t i n a o

, w h i f y 1 0 r i e , W 1 2

E u

e a c h y

3 4 6 8 24 7 N AY<X

CV BAOQW Z

In 1999, the design firm fuenfwerken was commissioned to develop a new corporate design for mvg while functionally improving the passenger information and wayfinding systems. The corporate design and information design concept that fuenfwerken developed at the time continues to be used and expanded by mvg. The core of the design concept consists of a font that is capable of bridging the gap between functional information typography to ensure passenger orientation and the demands of a distinctive corporate type. Helmut Ness, founding partner and design director at Fuenfwerken, developed the flexible font family called Vialog together with Professor Werner Schneider. The renowned typographer is represented with his work in many international museums and collections. The name “Vialog” is a combination of the Latin “Via” (way, method) and the Greek “Logos” (reason, rational). This word hybrid indicates that in designing a font that is intended to “reasonably” point the “way,”

a design “method” and “rational” decisions were key ingredients. A precursor to the Vialog was the typeface called “Euro Type” that Werner Schneider developed for the German Ministry of Transportation. Extensive legibility research was conducted for this type that intended to unify the many types used on European transportation signage. The results of this research subsequently enriched the design of the font “Vialog.” Today, the Vialog is a convincing solution for many different applications due to careful preparation and an extremely self-critical and detailoriented design process. At very small point sizes or when extremely blurred, Vialog remains legible because of the quality of its micro-type details. Particularly the numerals remain identifiable at extremely small point sizes because of their recognizable silhouettes. Even in conditions in which reading is made difficult, the letter “r” for example is sufficiently different from the letter “n” so as not to be confused with an “m.”

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helmut ness “With timetables and system diagrams in mind, it was our goal to develop a font that is highly legible in small point sizes while remaining efficient in its use of space. The emotional character of the letters as used on signs for train stations, bus stops and vehicles strengthens the mvg brand identity.”

Vialog Light ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Light OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Light sc ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Light Italic ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Light Italic OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Light Italic sc ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Regular ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Regular OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Regular sc ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Regular Italic ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Regular Italic OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Regular Italic sc ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Medium ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Medium OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Medium sc ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Medium Italic ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Medium Italic OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Medium Italic sc ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Bold ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Bold OsF ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Bold Italic ABCabc0123456789 Vialog Bold Italic OsF ABCabc0123456789

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professor werner schneider “The unique silhouettes of the letter shapes have a huge impact on the recognizability of an information type—particularly the numerals show how skilled a typographer is.”

In Munich, Vialog has performed well over several years for passengers as well as the mvg corporate image. This is not the only place where Vialog has been recognized for its excellent quality. The International Design Center, Berlin and renfe, the Spanish National Rail Corporation, both use Vialog as their corporate type to point the way towards the future. //

The typeface has what it takes to communicate a strong identity. This is a result not of a purely logical technical construct but rather of a mature type formed by practical experience and careful shaping. This type is engaging and has emotional resonance despite being clean and minimal. The Vialog family is complemented by “Vialog Arrows” and the unusually extensive “Vialog Signs”—a sure sign of its heritage as a design for transportation signage and information display.

Text set in Vialog™ Light, 9 pt.

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In large point sizes, on the other hand, for signage that is intended to be read at a distance, Vialog is particularly conservative with the amount of space it needs for proper kerning. The forms Vialog typeface are slightly condensed; its robust and even letter shapes are effective both in printed and on-screen media.

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The Typeface with Three Different Italics A Linotype Original first designed by Rudolph Ruzicka in 1940; later updated and re-released by the 75 bold Linotype Design Studio in 1992. 55 caption medium

56 medium italic

76 bold italic 75 caption bold

85 heavy

55 medium 86 heavy italic 46 Light italic 85 caption heavy 45 Light

airfield mixes the forms of Venetian old style type with Art Deco details, giving the design its distinctive appearance. Rudolph Ruzicka (1883 –1978) was the originator of the typeface; born in what is now the Czech Republic, he worked as a consultant to the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in the usa for over 40 years. Between 1937 and 1939, Ruzicka developed the Roman and Italic weights of Fairfield with the help of C.H. Griffith. His drawings formed the basis for the digitally re-worked Fairfield series that the American-based Linotype Design Studio created in the 1990s. ¶ Considered a distinguished engraver in wood and metal and an accomplished and versatile artist and designer of his time, Ruzicka was recommended to Griffith, director of Mergenthaler Linotype’s

Typographic Development, by W.A. Dwiggins in 1935 with the statement “I want him for real work with Lino.” In a note to Griffith regarding the first proofs of Fairfield in 1937 Dwiggins wrote, “I was sure Rudolph would come through with hot stuff if we could start him—He knows his letters to the bone, with ample historical background, and his combination of Czech + u s a gives us the outside touch we want.” ¶ Commenting upon theories expressed about type when Fairfield was introduced, Ruzicka was simple and direct: “Type is made to be read,” he reminded, “and that implies a reader. It may usefully be asked what does that all-important but often disregarded person expect? He expects nothing but to be left in optical ease while he pursues his reading—he wants

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Fairfield

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aa aaa aaa a aa 1883 –1978 tabular figures

typografie ligatures

Czechoslovakia small caps

Linotype italic swash caps

45 Light

46 light italic

55 medium

56 medium italic

55 caption medium

75 bold

76 bold italic

75 caption bold

85 heavy

86 heavy italic

85 caption heavy

61 LINOTYPE MATRIX

1883 –1978

old style figures

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDE

LINOTYPE MATRIX

American Bank Note Company 85 heavy + small caps

Mergenthaler Linotype Company 55 caption medium

Daniel Berkeley Updike’s Merrymount Press 55 Medium + old style figures

76 bold italic

“Type Is Made To Be Read.” no interruptions of the process of following the printed thought—there should be a kind of impersonal ease about type—type is after all, only a medium between writing and reading.” ¶ In designing Fairfield, Ruzicka pointed out, “the limitations accepted were those tending to the greatest economy of means, rather than those supposedly inherent in the machine. For this reason ligatures (which only add to the number of characters) were confined to the f combinations required by usage. The lowercase f ’s, both roman and italic, fit not only all the characters, but even themselves—the twenty six leaden soldiers could fight their battles untied yet in accord.” Although Fairfield was made to be read, not dissected, it may be described as a slightly decorative contemporary type with

old style characteristics. ¶ The Linotype decision to rework and extend the Fairfield design into a new, digital type family was based on a number of considerations. The first, and most important, was that the design has an appeal and a liveliness that adds to the Linotype library. In addition, Ruzicka had designed the original hot metal face specifically for Linotype, and his introduction to Linotype came via another of our design luminaries, namely Dwiggins. ¶ The redevelopment plan defined a series that incorporated the Light weight of the original Fairfield, which had been released in 1940, as well as the more refined characteristics of the reworked Fairfield Medium, released in 1947. In order to round out the family, the Linotype Design Studio included small caps,

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46 Light italic + swashes

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Text set in Fairfield® 45 Light, 11 pt.

Rudolph Ruzicka’s illustration from a book Walden or Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau, published by R.R. Donneley & Sons Company, Chicago, 1930. Reprinted from a Czech edition published by Jan Laichter, Prague, 1949.

the roman design, due to its lighter color and texture, a better solution was needed. The Caption style has been designed to carry the roman color but with mixture of italic and sloped roman forms that result in an intermediate change in texture. ¶ Do you really need a special typeface style for captions? The designers who create documents with Fairfield’s weights themselves will decide the answer to this question, but Linotype’s view has always been: “why not?” Fairfield was one of the first digital typefaces that made the possibility of working with fonts specifically optimized for captions available on a broader basis, thus giving users more options. This variety can be of tremendous benefit; since the Fairfield family has three different Italic variants (Italic, Caption, and Swash), its design and setting options increase exponentially.

63 LINOTYPE MATRIX

old style figures and a set of Italic swash characters. In the end, today’s Fairfield family includes four weights: Light, Medium, Bold, and Heavy; each weight has four versions at its disposal: Normal, Caption, Italic, and Swash Italic. ¶ Caption? The Linotype Design Studio decided to take Fairfield a step further by introducing a new typographic element—a Caption style. The idea was to create a design and weight variation that could be used in place of the Roman or Italic design for captions. The weight had to be very close to that of the Roman, to ensure that the level of stress, or color, of the captioned area retains a level of importance that competes with the text portion of the document. The Italic or slanted form of the Caption style adds a slight textural change. ¶ The idea of a specific Caption design is not new. Matthew Carter and Mike Parker, in answer to a National Geographic design problem, created this Linotype solution back in 1976. The problem had to do with the premise that captions within an article are just as important as the text. The reasoning is based on the fact that only a small percentage of the readers actually read the article while most all readers scan the captions. Since the typical italic design could not compete against

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THE HISTORY OF THE MOST AS TOLD BY THE FORMER CEO OF

elve THERE WERE TIMES when typesetting was still more of a craft - when type designers, cutters and type founders gave all their talent to create typefaces that transported some kind of magic. Even today this magic is being revealed when a typophile opens a book that is maybe set in one of these famous typefaces such as Janson or Bodoni, Caslon, Palatino®, Diotima® or Sabon®. Surely readers can feel that magic when they read a pocket-book set in Aldus® by Hermann Zapf, or a newspaper set in Excelsior® or Times®. Even a person driving a car could surely say something about this kind of magic, driving through a city, following a signage system that is set in a well-designed and appealing, easy-to-read typeface leading him or her to the airport that is miles from anywhere. Maybe it was even Helvetica®.

SUCCESSFUL SANS SERIF D. STEMPEL AG

Dr. Walter Greisner

vetic

LINOTYPE MATRIX

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The simplicity and neutrality of HELVETICA’S design contrasted with the predominant designs of the ’50s and still contributes to its success by making it versatile for use in many different applications.

Haas’sche Schriftgießerei AG in Basel/ Münchenstein (founded in 1580)

The birth of Helvetica

Ty D. Stempel AG, foundry offices, ca. 1925 Frankfurt/Sachsenhausen, Hedderich St.

P p s

67 LINOTYPE MATRIX

IN 1957, Max Miedinger from the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei AG presented his draft for a new, bold sans serif typeface at a trade fair in Lausanne. This was the hour of birth for Neue Haas Grotesk™, later renamed HELVETICA. The history of this typeface is an early example of international cooperation between two major type foundries and their creative teams: The Haas’sche Schriftgießerei AG in Basel and the D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt.

The Foundries A freshly casted, ready-to-ship weight of Helvetica

STEMPEL as well as Haas (to a large extend owned by Stempel) were early adopters when setting the stage for a time without hot metal type. Since the autumn of 1967, Stempel had started to set up its own financially-independent business, offering new jobs to those workers who were able to undertake occupational re-training. The technical management was assigned to RenĂŠ Kerfante, who, at the time, was a young master typesetter. He became technical director later in his career. Stempel was supported by Steve Wassermann who was working at Mergenthaler-Linotype Comp., N.Y (MLCo) and Mike Parker, the creative head of MLCo. The most important strength of Stempel lay in their knowledge and vast experience in the field of traditional typesetting for hand and matrix setting. They were also able to transform their potential into the creation of processes for both photo typesetting and digital printing. Because of the close working relationship with famous type designers such as Hermann Zapf and Adrian Frutiger, Stempel was able to continuously publish new typefaces. This helped the company to take on a leading position within their branch of the trade. HELVETICA was one of their best-sellers. Despite this positive development, Stempel and Haas had to abandon their successful business because of corporate decisions made by the group.

LINOTYPE GmbH in Eschborn was a majority shareholder of D. Stempel AG for more than 80 years. When Stempel was liquidated in 1985, Linotype took over the Stempel type division as well as Stempel’s shareholding in Haas. That resulted in the transfer of Stempel’s typefaces to Linotype – including Stempel and Haas’ know-how, production, and licenses. After this excursion into the historical background of Stempel and Haas, I would like to come back to the core of this article, and shed light onto the success story of HELVETICA and its development in Switzerland - taking us back to the Second World War. Since Germany needed all of its strength to rebuild the country, its typographic spectrum was small. 2 kg of lead were worth 1 kg of Futura® at Bauer. Well-trained typesetters, graphic designers, and teachers were missing. The interruption to the typographic development could not be overcome so easily.

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The search for a new Sans S SWISS DESIGNERS and printers did not like Futura. To them it seemed too German. Maybe it was also too close to the Bauhaus design ethic that was completely refused in Switzerland.* Because of the lack of a pleasing sans serif typeface, the old Akzidenz-Grotesk® from H. Berthold AG (1898) found favor with the designers. Yet, there still was a need for a modern sans serif typeface. The Haas’sche Schriftgießerei in Basel felt this need because their typefaces - despite being re-designed - were not in popular demand. * Paul Renner himself always rejected any connection between Futura and the Bauhaus movement.

EMIL RUDER (1914 - 1970) was one of the most influential typographers of his time. He tought typography at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel for more than 20 years. TYPOGRAPHY is the title of his book, a standard reading for design students. Ruder questioned all the old rules of typography including the first principles for booksetting.** Many people know Emil Ruder’s comment about “the patterns of typography.” He was of the opinion that every typographic work was supposed to be seen as a picture in which black and white played a major and co-relating role. Designing with type should take on a theatrical role. ** The text of the First Principles of Typography, by Stanley Morison, was published in 1929 in the Encyclopedia Britannica (14th edition) under the keyword “Typography.”

s Serif AFTER 1957, the long-awaited sans serif typefaces became available: Adrian Frutiger, at Deberny & Peignot in Paris, designed UNIVERS®; Walter Baum and Dr. Konrad F. Bauer at the Bauer’sche Schriftgießerei in Frankfurt, designed FOLIO®; and Karlgeorg Hoefer, at Ludwig & Mayer in Frankfurt, designed PERMANENT. And one typeface - among others - became a star at this time. It was a typeface by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, with two weights that were bold and regular.

Neue Haas Grotesk AT GRAPHIC ‘57, the international trade fair in Lausanne, Haas had only presented a 20-point sample of the bold Neue Haas Grotesk. Even with the limited showing, this sample became a highlight for the visitors. The creative heads of Stempel and Mergenthaler Linotype Company, N.Y. liked the design, for Max Miedinger and Haas had found the right typographic expression for the present zeitgeist - a new form for a classic sans serif genre: a larger x-height, harmonious image, modern forms, and an even grey value. This typeface was a new tool for the typographic scene - and especially for the new Swiss design movement, which rose to world-standard at the time. Haas was urged to publish Neue Haas Grotesk as soon as possible. The bold was developed in 1957 and the regular version followed in 1958.

LINOTYPE MATR IX

HAAS lacked the capacity for large-scale production. So, STEMPEL took over the development of the product range in consultation with them. Stempel also produced the metal faces for different countries except Switzerland and some other romance-language countries. They also developed Linotype matrices of Neue Haas Grotesk in combinations of regular/bold and regular/italic at the factory in Frankfurt. In order to do so, a remodelling of the complete character set was necessary because the printers asked that the typeface look identical in both hand and machine setting. If corrections were necessary, these could easily be made by the typesetter. This technical gap between hand and machine setting was bridged in later years in a tight cooperation between Erich Schulz-Anker (art department), and Arthur Ritzel. Compatibility between the two was one of the selling arguments when the new typeface was introduced to the market.

Helvetica THE NAME Neue Haas Grotesk was felt to be not popular. The Stempel marketing manager Heinz Eul always said that typographers and designers working in advertisement departments could easily spell “Swiss design movement,” but that Neue Haas Grotesk was not accepted as a name, both on a national and international level. The proposal to rename the typeface did not attract the sympathy of the Swiss countrymen within the administrative board of Haas; it hurt their feelings. In 1960 Eduard Hoffmann’s proposal to rename it to Helvetica was accepted unanimously, and registered as a trademark in Bern, and then on an international basis. In the end, this proved to be the one and only measure to prevent product piracy.

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Helvetica

Neue Helvetica IN FORMER TIMES, type founders and printers generally used three weights: regular, bold, and italic. Since metal type required matrices for sizes ranging from 5 to 72 points, the development costs were extremely expensive. Phototypesetting helped to simplify the production of the typefaces and several new weights were added to the family. With the advance of new technologies, in 1983 HELVETICA was redesigned and extended to 51 different styles: from ultra light to black, and from condensed to wide. This typeface family was then renamed NEUE HELVETICA.

LINOTYPE MATR IX

STEMPEL’S MARKETING strategies had been refined over the years from simple advertisements and typeface samples, to employing travelling salesmen to directly place the products in agencies, advertising departments, and technical schools. Those, for their part, referred directly to their printers to get the respective typefaces needed.

Lufthansa A BIG BREAK for Helvetica came with the Lufthansa project helping it to become popular on a world-wide level. In 1962 Otl Aicher received the order to develop new, modern design guidelines for the Deutsche Lufthansa AG. Together with his design team No. 5 of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm and the advertising department of Lufthansa, he started the development of the new Corporate Identity that was later approved by the Lufthansa board of directors. These guidelines defined Helvetica to be the corporate typeface.* The corporate design guidelines now asked for the company name to be written in upper- and lowercase letters - Lufthansa - instead of LUFTHANSA as it was before. Stempel’s Helvetica bold was used. Before the redesign, Lufthansa had used a slab serif typeface (Schadow). Printing matter from Lufthansa (e.g. letterheads, tickets, etc.) was only supposed to be set in Helvetica. Any printer working for Lufthansa had to get a hold of this typeface.

*Volker Fischer, Die Schwingen des Kranichs, 50 Jahre Lufthansa Design, Edition Axel Menges

Lufthansa set a standard for corporate identity. Many companies followed this trend. Among them BASF, Hoechst, Bayer, Beiersdorf, Blaupunkt, Bogner, BMW, Ford, Saab, Toyota, Deutsche Bundesbahn, DSB Danske Statsbaner, SBB, Migros, Nestlé, Allied Signal, ZANUSSI…..

What some typographers say about Helvetica: HENRY STEINER calls HELVETICA “a triumph of branding.” FERNANDO MEDINA says it is “the cream of the pie.” PAUL RAND only recommends it “for display purposes never in text - because HELVETICA looks like dog shit in text.” KATHERINE McCOY literally loves HELVETICA for “the lowercase ‘a’ is the most beautiful two-dimensional form ever designed. Its luxurious sensual curves are balanced by points of crisp tension. Its lovely counter makes me think of Mozart.” LARS MÜLLER pays tribute to HELVETICA in his little red book Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface.

75 LINOTYPE M ATRIX

a triumph of branding.

HELVETICA has inspired a lot of other typefaces. In 1992, Microsoft included a number of typefaces in their Office applications. Among them is Arial® which is closely related, sharing the same metrics, but differing on a few key elements. The terminals of the a, e, r, and t received slanted edges and the German “ß” changed drastically. When Helvetica and Arial are compared directly to each other it appears that Arial is a little heavier, and that its proportions are less balanced.

Arial Helvetica

aertß aertß

Arial Helvetica has inspired a lot of other typefaces. In 1992, Microsoft included a number of typefaces in their Ofﬁce applications. Among them is Arial which is closely related, sharing the same metrics, but differing on a few key elements. Helvetica Helvetica has inspired a lot of other typefaces. In 1992, Microsoft included a number of typefaces in their Ofﬁce applications. Among them is Arial which is closely related, sharing the same metrics, but differing on a few key elements.

SOME DESIGNERS criticize that Haas and Stempel did not promote Max Miedinger enough as the typefaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designer in advertisements for Helvetica. It has to be taken into consideration that advertisements mostly feature brands, not designers. Most people just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the designer who created a famous typeface. In the course of the development of the Helvetica typeface family, based upon the close-knit business partnership between Mergenthaler, Linotype, Stempel, and Haas - many people indeed thought they had had their share in the design. Generally, the achievements of those who were part of this success were not acknowledged. But success has many fathers. Yet, there is one person, Eduard Hoffmann, who had a large influence on the creative development of the typeface by creating the bold and regular versions. When the Association Typographique International (ATypI) asked all members in the 1980s to forward names of designers to register them in a typeface directory to be published, Stempel named Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann as the designers of Helvetica. No one objected.

77 LINOTYPE M ATRIX

The allegation, that Max Miedinger did not participate in the success of HELVETICA, is not correct. The truth is, that Martin Fehle, a former delegate of the Haas AG executive board, regularly informed the members of the board of the fact that he met with Max Miedinger every three months to hand over a check. These payments were continued on a voluntary basis throughout his lifetime.

50 YEARS LATER, HELVETICA still tops the charts of the best selling typefaces and can be seen nearly everywhere on a daily basis. Its design has inspired generations, whether in admiration for it or revolution against it. It continues to provoke heated debates within the design community; no other sans serif typeface has reached this level of prevalence and popularity. The story of Helvetica is an amazing, and ongoing, account of the most successful sans serif to date.

AUTHOR: 1928 1947- 1950

1951-1955

1959 1960-1964 1964-1967 1967-1987 1987-2006

DR. WALTER GREISNER Born in Essen/Ruhr Abitur (Staatl. Gymnasium Mühlheim/Ruhr) Technical and commercial apprenticeship at the printing and publishing house G. Girardet, Essen and evening classes in typedesign at Folkwang-Werkschule, Essen Law school in Köln and Hamburg, legal clerkship and examination for a doctorate (patent law); doctoral advisor Prof. Dr. Hefermehl Lawyer at Dr. Ronkel/Dr. Schmidt Editor and Authorized Signatory at Carl Heymann Verlag, Cologne Managing Director at Bauersche Gießerei, Frankfurt/Main Member of the steering committee and later CEO of D. Stempel AG, Frankfurt/Main Lawyer (of counsel) at Clifford Chance, Frankfurt/Main. Head of the judicial panel of ATypI, Honorary member of ATypI

Most people

The Designers MAX MIEDINGER (1910 - 1980) contributed to a large extent what Helvetica (alias Neue Haas Grotesk) is today. He set the stage for the ongoing development of this typeface by designing the regular and bold weights. Today, HELVETICA is a sophisticated system of 51 different weights - from ultra light to extra bold variants. Max Miedinger began his four-year apprenticeship to become a typesetter when he was 16-years-old, at the printing house of Jaques Bollmann in Zurich. At 26, the department store “GLOBUS” hired him as a graphic designer. Besides working, he started to learn more about type design. Sans serif typefaces were his personal favorite. In 1946 he joined the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei AG and travelled throughout eastern Switzerland. After 10 years in business, he complained about the fact that he could not meet his customers’ needs for a modern sans serif typeface. EDUARD HOFFMANN, a managing partner at Haas, understood the worries of Max Miedinger. Being a typesetter himself, he had already thought of new ideas on how to meet the needs of the new typographic trend in Switzerland. 1956, Miedinger wanted to become self-employed as a graphic designer. And when Eduard Hoffmann offered him the chance to design a completely new sans serif typeface on a freelance basis, that wish became reality.

don’t know who created it. LINOTYPE M ATRIX

Publisher Mergenthaler Edition by Linotype GmbH Du-Pont-Strasse 1 61352 Bad Homburg Germany

Trademarks Arioso, Carolina, Duc de Berry, Garamond, Linotype Gianotten, Morris Sans, Linotype Nordica, Linotype Octane and Ruling Script are trademarks of Linotype GmbH and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.

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Designed with typefaces from Linotype. Printed in Germany. Contributors Filip Blažek Max Bollwage Hendrik Bach Nadine Chahine Walter Greisner Otmar Hoefer Rob Keller Jan Middendorp Helmut Ness Richard O’Meara Gottfried Pott Dan Reynolds Claudio Rocha Christian Steurer Tiffany Wardle de Sousa Jacob Wascalus All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Folio, Futura and Impressum are registered trademarks of Bauer Types SA. Bordeaux, ITC Founder’s Caslon, Galliard, Pritchard, ITC Roswell, ITC Serengetti and ITC Willow are trademarks of International Typeface Corporation and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Binner Gothic, Caslon, Facade, Old English and Plantin are trademarks of The Monotype Corporation and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Arial, Gill Sans, Grotesque and Onyx are trademarks of The Monotype Corporation registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Romantica and Smart Sans are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Impact is a trademark of Stephenson & Blake Ltd. Buffalo Gal is a trademark of Thomas A Rickner and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.

We reserve the rights of errors and changes. Linotype Matrix is a typographic journal published from time to time by Linotype. Distributed internationally by Linotype GmbH.

LINOTYPE MATR IX

Akzidenz-Grotesk is a trademark of Berthold Types Limited. Apple, Macintosh and TrueType are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Adobe, Adobe Type Manager, ATM, Acrobat, Acrobat Reader and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Microsoft, Windows and OpenType are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.