Especially in the bolder weights, many compromises were made: strokes that go into stems are heavily reduced, some of the capital characters lose their pointed apexes – a key feature in all the lighter weights – and the closing of the lowercase ›e‹ is quite unfortunate as it seems inconsistent and appears to be a misfit in the overall design. 1 Many foundries at the time were in search of a typeface that would not only serve these needs, but one that visually reflected the zeitgeist and thus letterforms originating from basic shapes. One of the most versatile geometric sans serifs of the time is perhaps Intertype’s Vogue, released in 1930. Today, new sans typefaces can choose which heritage to draw from, or even combine elements of both, as does our new release, Ping (2019), a geometric sans in the tradition of Erbar and Futura that features abstract, reductionist forms. You’ve probably seen Futura being used in many different industries, from film posters to advertising and album covers. It was apparently released abroad as Saxo with the Berling type foundry in Sweden and as Predilecta with José Iranzo in Spain.9 In reference to its original name (spelled slightly different) it was distributed as Krystal-Grotesk in Denmark. Technische Abhandlungen und Berichte ueber die Neuheiten auf dem Gesamtgebiet der graphischen Künste, issues 20–26, Frankfurt/Main 1926–1932, Burke, Christopher: Paul Renner. The basic shapes circle, square and triangle were omnipresent in the fields of industrial design, architecture, certainly in graphic design, as well as in lettering and type design. He used his approach to modern typography to create an "idealist typeface." In 1928 Heinrich Jost, artistic advisor at Bauer, emphasizes the foundry’s self-confidence in an article: “Futura may contribute to the movement of the ‘elementary typography’ by steering it into a sophisticated direction”.8. 1 Iwan [Jan] Tschichold: Elementare Typographie. The history of a contemporary typeface, in: Erik Spiekermann/Jan Middendorp (Ed. A Stempel specimen issued by the Caslon Machinery Ltd. in London, then sole agents of the German foundry in Great Britain, refers to that name and notes that it was changed to Stempel Sans. What it is, is an original contemporary design that serves today’s needs. 17 Read more about Frutiger’s concept in: Heidrun Osterer/ Philipp Stamm (ed. When NASA later needed a font for the plaque that Apollo 11 would leave on the moon, they chose Futura. Once the typecase was fleshed out into a full upper- and lower-case character set and released as ITC Avant Garde Gothic, Lubalin capitalized on its geometric design by adding heavy slab serifs, reminiscent of the so-called Egyptienne typefaces of the 1930s. Liber. Circular Std. Geometric sans-serif fonts were popular from the 1920s and 1930s due to their clean, modern design, and many new geometric designs and revivals have been created since. The release of Futura the following year easily provokes the debate whether it was influenced by Erbar-Grotesk or whether it was possibly the other way around. The Futura font is one of the most famous geometric fonts, and it’s still popular to this day. In 1976 the International Typeface Corporation announced their revival of “one of the most uniquely styled sans serif typefaces”: Kabel.14 Victor Caruso of Photo Lettering Inc. redrew the face under special license from Stempel, who had acquired Klingspor and their library of types and thus owned Kabel. While some may say it’s overused, one thing is for sure: it’s timeless, concise, and gets the job done. Frutiger. Then, in the 1940s, the Nazi regime considered Blackletter too similar to Hebrew and banned it. The design originates from Royal Grotesk light by Ferdinand Theinhardt (1820-1909), a punch-cutter and type designer whose innovations laid the foundation for modernist sans serif typefaces. While they gently sit left and right of an ‘A’s’ apex, they would sometime drop into the ‘U’s’ bowl in the bolder weights. Do you have a favorite font that has stood the test of time? In movies, it’s been used in V for Vendetta, American Beauty, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Gravity, and in many of Wes Anderson’s films. FF Mark is a new typeface and yet it clearly draws on historical examples from the past. This geometric sans serif was designed as part of the corporate brand. Several designers and the respective foundries sensed the need to produce a type that would reflect the ideas and innovations of the 1920s — more or less at the same time. Like its contemporaries Berthold-Grotesk has a small x-height, long ascenders, but relatively short descenders. Throughout the 20th century – and into the 21st – typefaces whose designs have taken advantage of this have remained popular. Kinross names Futura as the typeface “accepted by the new typographers as the most satisfactory of the new (twentieth-century) sanserifs. The Bauhaus ideology was based on simple, modern, and functional geometry. Drescher designed a family of several weights as well as the accompanying all-caps fonts Super-Blickfang, Super-Elektrik and Super-Reflex. The repetition of simple geometric shapes forms a daily part of our environment. The Futura Condensed font is a condensed version of the original Futura font family. Part of this identity was the German Blackletter (Fraktur), which was preferred over Roman letters and became the standard font used for texts. A Cyrillic version of Futura Medium font was released by Anatoli Muzanov for the 1980 Summer Olympics. The Apotheke am Bauhaus, a pharmacy just 500 feet away from the historical Bauhaus site in Dessau, uses ITC Bauhaus on its store front sign – only one example of a very unfortunate and frequent misconception. some fonts come with a single story ‘a’, while others feature the double-story alternative). This makes the font look elegant and sets it apart from other geometric fonts. 8 Heinrich Jost: Zweifel, in: Klimschs Jahrbuch. While Kabel captures the modern look of the 1920s it reveals features of Art Deco at the same time. However, the design has its foundation in the first sans serif ever produced – a cap-only face issued by the Caslon Type Foundry in 1816. Since its creation, it has been used for advertising and editorial design—anywhere from display copy to long-form copy, as long as you typeset it correctly. The Futura font displayed the Bauhaus ideology for the first time – it was strictly geometric, lacked embellishments, and did not stick to the historic shapes of letters. What Is Futura? 4 This article by Bayer was published in a special Bauhaus edition of: Offset, Buch- und Werbekunst, 1926, issue 7. In the late 1920s, an answer to Erbar, Futura and Kabel was also in the pipeline in the United States. The lowercase ‘a’ took on a shape in tradition of the Carolingian minuscule; a bow with an open counter below. With the advantages of digital type design a new wave of revivals began in the early 1990s. If you liked this Futura history article, you might like: Everything You Wanted to Know About Helvetica, “The historical plaque on the Apollo 11 lunar module “Eagle” by NASA, “A specimen of the Futura typeface.” by Sherbyte, “Copy of a 1768 ordinance issued by Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels, Archbishop of Cologne” by MatthiasKabel, “1970 Volkswagen Advertisement Playboy December 1969” by SenseiAlan, “Specimen of the typeface Avenir” by GearedBull, “File:Futura Bold Condensed.jpg” by James Puckett, “VAG Rounded typeface sample” by Connormah, Why You Need Video For Design and Marketing, Simple Tactics to Improve Your Website’s User Experience, 34 Best Slab Serif Fonts (Ready to Download Now). In fact, Paul Renner had already presented his type design to an audience during a lecture at the Kölner Werbeschule in 1925, where Jakob Erbar happened to be teaching.6 Erbar on the other hand claims to have begun his design several years earlier. The urban landscape inspiration and the perfect basic engineering of each character have made Gotham one of the most used typefaces of the early 21st century. A significant feature is the capital ‘M’. His version was called Metro. Geometric – 1900s Just like the Modern serifs, Geometric typefaces are the result of taking the design trend to the edge. Johnston's humanist, geometric sans serif was the original expression of the idea that a typeface could be a deliberate representation of its own time and place. Futura had great commercial success and inspired many other geometric sans serif typefaces. 2021 • All rights reserved. Gotham is one of the latest geometric sans serif fonts to take on the world. DIN (German Institute for Standardization). Other typefaces included large differences … The typeface was based on the geometric Bauhaus design style that had its boom between 1919 and 1933. Contrary to popular belief, the Futura font was not designed in conjunction with the famous school. Fonts, Foundries, Designer and Fontlists. In Berthold-Grotesk bold the dots merge with the umlaut ‘O’, creating a head with teddy bear-like ears. Nevertheless, ITC Bauhaus is a type of its time – of the 1970s – and interestingly it has many contemporaries that reveal a certain family resemblance (some of them released earlier): Blippo Black (1969) by Joe Taylor, Burko (1970) by David L. Burke and ITC Pump Bold (1975) by Philip Kelly as well as Horatio (1971) by Bob Newman. True to the geometric tradition, but better, FF Mark is a typeface of our time. Years later, after the owners of Schriftguss KG were dispossessed, the company as well as other foundries were converted into VEB Typoart in the German Democratic Republic. Evidently, it is based on a concept that is apparent in many examples from the past. What is more, it is equipped with fractions and small caps – something seldom seen in sans serif typefaces at the time. The Futura font was even the first font to go to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Completely engineered with basic shapes, it was a typeface that followed the Bauhaus ideology of function over form. This change had a huge impact on the overall appearance on a printed page. Created by German type designer, Paul Renner, in 1924, Futura was the first typeface of its time to combine geometric and old style figures into one face. ): Buchdruckschriften im 20. Shortly after its release, Futura had already been replicated to adapt to American demands. Inspired by Dutch Baroque type, Caslon was one of the first English typefaces ever made, created by London-born typographer William Caslon I, who founded the Caslon Foundry in 1739. Its eponymous designer Jakob Erbar defined the circle as a basic element on which the typeface was built – note the almost perfectly circular capital ›O‹. In 1929 Sjoerd de Roos and Dick Dooijes designed Nobel for the Amsterdam type foundry. This version appears to be a blend of the various Bayer drawings. Some of Bayer’s colleagues had constructed alphabets of their own. At the same time, however, Ping is not hesitant to show traces of handwriting. In a special edition of the journal Typographische Mitteilungen titled Elementare Typographie it was Jan Tschichold who expressed his views on a new typographic style. Samples of Sans-serif typefaces Typeface name Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Agency FB Designer: Caleigh Huber & Morris Fuller Benton Class: Geometric Akzidenz-Grotesk Designer: Günter Gerhard Lange Class: Grotesque Amplitude Designer: Christian Schwartz Class: Humanist Andalé Sans The renaming comes as no surprise: the term sans sérif has been emphasized as more adequate as opposed to grotesk (or perhaps gothic) in the introductory remarks of most Neuzeit specimens. Geometric, contructivist typefaces based on the design ideas of the Bauhaus: ... ITC Bauhaus are beginning design students and design students at programs that do not emphasis solid knowledge of type history and have at least a sequence of 3-4 type classes from basic to advanced. Just like its predecessors, outline-style relatives extended the Kabel family. URW++ has released several families, a Futura book font, and a Futura light font version. While the oblique fonts in some older examples of the geometric sans do not fully match the rest of the typeface (and thus can seem disturbing), the FF Mark Italic weights are more harmonized and retain the geometric character just as much as their upright counterparts. The same year the Stempel type foundry released their version of a geometric sans serif: Elegant-Grotesk, drawn in several weights by German type designer Hans Möhring a year earlier. Foremost Joost Schmidt, who drew several sans serifs, slab serifs as well as modern faces (meaning Didones). Jahrhundert. After the Neufville type foundry took over Bauer’s activities in 1972 and inherited most of their licenses, it rightfully calls itself “the home of Futura” today and offers 22 fonts of Futura ND.20 At the same time several Futura versions are distributed on Monotype’s online platform, the Linotype library: Futura Plus, Futura T and Futura Round of URW, Futura from Bitstream, ParaType and Berthold as well as the Linotype Originals’ very own Futura. It was designed by Tobias Frere-Jones and based on lettering found around New York. The Futura display font can create particularly catchy headlines. In some digitizations relevant contemporary glyphs were often added later in the redesign process: currency signs, the @-symbol, the copyright sign, fractions etc. Almost fifty years after the type’s initial release, ITC claimed to have redesigned the original “as Rudolph Koch might have chosen to create his Kabel letterforms if the technology of film and photo-typesetting had existed in his era”.15 Besides several minor refinements such as a more rounded descender of the ‘g’, a new angle on the crossbar of the ‘e’ and diamond-shaped ‘i’-dots, the most noticeable adjustment applied to the type was its dramatically increased x-height. Bertheau (ed. Considering the time when the majority of typefaces were released in regular, bold and respective italics, Futura was extended to an impeccable series of weights, ranging from mager (light) over Buchschrift (book), halbfett (medium), dreiviertelfett (literally three quarters bold, later known as demi bold in English specimens) to fett (bold), each slightly thicker or thinner than the other. Aug 16, 2016 - The free fonts collected here are designed using the geometric shapes. The famous artist Barbara Kruger layers the Futura bold font, in the oblique version, over her artwork. That’s correct: the Futura font was used on the plaque that was left on the Moon in the Apollo 11 mission. Exterior is a geometric outline typeface created by TIMXEZ.It features 3 weights and two different styles. It was representative of the Bauhaus ideology, function over form. It became instantly popular upon its release, and now it’s pretty much everywhere. Perhaps the use of Futura Black, a stencil face similar to Albers’ Schablonenschrift, on the cover of Bauhausbücher #12, published in 1930, as well as on other printed matter remains to be one of the better-known exceptions. Throughout the years, it has made appearances everywhere from Nazi propaganda to fashion and automotive brands. Samples of Sans-serif typefaces Typeface name Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Agency FB Designer: Caleigh Huber & Morris Fuller Benton Class: Geometric Akzidenz-Grotesk Designer: Günter Gerhard Lange Class: Grotesque Amplitude … Gropius commissioned Bayer to design a typeface for all Bauhaus communiqués and Bayer excitedly undertook this task. In a time when sans serif typefaces were gaining more and more popularity, the Berthold type foundry was well represented with its flagship Akzidenz-Grotesk. 20 »The home of Futura« is a registered trademark of the Barcelona-based Neufville Digital type foundry. Further he writes: “When counting from the 1905 KPEV master drawings, the DIN typeface celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.”12 It has also been suggested that the railway lettering could have possibly been an influence for Bayer and Schmidt in constructing their own grid-based letters.13. The original version of the Futura round bold font is available today through Adobe Systems. With a change in typesetting technology also came new demands for the way typefaces were designed. This version was used in the Star Trek novels, and a variant of it has been used by the Canadian Tire Corporation. Another type that has a long history of doubles and renaming was first known as Kristall Grotesk, an in-house design by the Leipzig-based Wagner & Schmidt type foundry. Humanist style fonts have moderate stroke contrast, uneven widths, and a classic, but soft and easy-to-read appearance. It’s one of the most popular typefaces in the world, but its uses are different than the typical Times New Roman or Helvetica. With reduced white space between the lines and equipped with shorter ascenders and descenders, text columns appear more compact. When Futura became available in France as Europe, a distinct letter was redesigned. The letterforms look more rectangular. 16 Please compare with the introduction of an ITC Bauhaus specimen issued by the International Typeface Corporation in 1976 or with other ITC publications. A well-known Humanist typeface is Gill Sans®. In the case of Kabel, though, it seems rather obvious that this change resulted in the immediate loss of its geometric proportions. This was a typographic style many type designers was striving to achieve during this time. Additionally, there are revival versions in which some characters can have slight variations. In the late 1980s Adrian Frutiger proposed the design of a new type to Linotype’s selection board. Der Charme des Systematischen, Gießen 1991, p. 32 ff. Geometric fonts go a step further than Neo-Grotesques with their simplicity by basing the letterforms on geometric shapes. In 1932, Schelter und Giesecke released Rhythmus, a type extremely close to Kabel, but with increased ascenders and a very low x-height. The Nazi Party used the Futura font as a way to shame modern art. At the time Lubalin was working on another typeface inspired by geometric shapes with his partner Tom Carnase: ITC Avant Garde, based on the logotype from the magazine of the same name. The Futura font is used in many ads and logos, including Ikea (before its brand redesign in 2010), Absolut Vodka, Domino’s Pizza, Nike, and Volkswagen. People chose fonts from metal type, and Futura stood out from the crowd. New original designs were born just as much as proven types were slightly adjusted and released under different names. Not only did its name hold great demands, but even more so the Bauer advertising: “Die Schrift unserer Zeit” (the type of our time), which was initially an idea by the editor Jakob Hegener.2 The claim that Futura was the type of its time, however, is excessive: type design at the time was as diverse as product design and architecture and there are numerous examples of geometric typefaces that represent similar thoughts and ideas. Volkswagen’s VAG Rounded font resembles the essence of Futura; we could call it a Futura round bold font. Feb 14, 2015 - Typeface designed using overlapping geometric shapes to create letterforms. Modern typefaces, including Futura, were rejected. This successful and friendly mix of two styles is just as characteristic of the typeface as its low x-height and some of its letterforms, for example ‘a’, ‘e’ and ‘g’, manage to maintain their qualities in bolder weights. While its name clearly quotes Renner’s famous type (in French avenir means future), especially the lower case is inspired by Neuzeit-Grotesk. The design’s heritage has sometimes been traced to the geometric sans serifs produced by Bauhaus designers in the mid-1920s. The Mergenthaler Linotype Company in New York commissioned William A. Dwiggins to design a typeface based on the geometric concept. More recently, the Futura font has been redrawn and upgraded by many type foundries. Fonts Similar to Times New Roman (And Its History), Essential Tips For Designing a Beautiful Website, Permalink: https://idevie.com/tutorials/all-about-the-futura-font-and-its-history. Futura Futuris includes a Futura light font weight, along with three other weights and condensed fonts. Within the system of different weights Berthold-Grotesk did not lose its initial character and optical compromises were applied carefully. Pretty simple one, this: it’s the F37 rework of historical font Caslon. 3 Please compare the different drawings in: Ute Brüning (ed. At the same time this trend began to spread over the neighboring countries. Created by German type designer, Paul Renner, in 1924, Futura was the first typeface of its time to combine geometric and old style figures into one face. The Linotype library also distributes ITC Kabel as well as another digital version that retains Koch’s original intentions. Nevertheless, Futura remains to be the most popular geometric sans of that time. 14 Please see the press release of the International Typeface Corporation of ITC Kabel, New York, June 7 1976. Though it is important to include on this list for its popularity, the typeface is also influential because it pioneered a new idea in type design. While these typefaces share the same core idea, they do have distinctions, special features and peculiarities. Function over form resulted in a typeface that didn’t include unnecessary ornamental elements. Type for independent minds, Amsterdam 2006, Spiekermann, Erik: Die Schrift der neuen Zeit, in: Studentenfutter. The art of typography, London 1998, p. 87, Articles and type specimens in: Klimschs Jahrbuch. For decades, there had already been a tradition in the construction of letters for storefront signs by designers. According to Philipp Bertheau’s Atlas zur Geschichte der Schrift, a comprehensive encyclopedia of typefaces, Kristall Grotesk was revived and released under these names in the following years: as Polar Grotesk (or simply Polar) in 1930 by J. John Söhne in Hamburg; as Rund Grotesk with C. E. Weber, Stuttgart, in 1931 and once more as Kristall Grotesk with the Norddeutsche Schriftgießerei in Berlin. The idea itself was not an invention of the Bauhaus, however. Another truly “constructed” typeface that is much more likely to be associated with the German Institute of Standardization is DIN Mittelschrift along with its condensed companion DIN Engschrift, also known by their industrial standard designation DIN 1451. The short intervals of designs released in the late 1920s and early 1930s suggest that there were instead many “types of their time”. At first glance Neuzeit-Grotesk has one major distinction as opposed to its predecessors: a larger x-height. 21 Christopher Burke: Paul Renner. The switching of characters can change the perception of a typeface extremely; nevertheless, Neuzeit-Grotesk maintained much of its original character. Copyright © iDevie. 3”, Vogue suddenly dresses up as Kabel, while “Special No. GallantGallant is a modern, geometric, sans serif typeface. Valentin Haüy, the founder of the school, developed a tactile book system along with a typeface called the Haüy System, which was esse… Johnston's humanist, geometric sans serif was the original expression of the idea that a typeface could be a deliberate representation of its own time and place. So letters like "a" that have an opening would be circular or square and then repeated with other letters that have the same type of opening. The history of a contemporary typeface, in: Erik Spiekermann/Jan Middendorp (ed. Use the tryout or find more helpful tools. The typeface works quite well in both print and digital copy and display copy. The light and bold weights were accompanied by alternative characters for display sizes as well as a Kabel Rundschrift – a rounded companion that emphasizes the Art Deco background of the type, available only in 60 cicero for posters. Its crotch does not go all the way to the baseline, but it is not sitting on the x-height either. Considered a progressive font that represented the European Avante-Garde. The history and applications of geometric fonts In geometric fonts, basic geometric shapes like a circle, square or triangle play a major role in the design of the typeface. Before we dive deep into the Futura history, let’s take a look at some quick facts to get us started: Futura was designed by renowned German type designer Paul Renner in 1927. The complete works, Basel/Boston/Berlin 2009, p. 330 ff. Between 1925 and 1930, Bayer redrew the alphabet several times.3 A bolder version with narrow and wider letters is also known as Bayer’s “Alfabet” published in his 1926 article Versuch einer neuen Schrift (attempt at designing a new type).4 On the one hand, the letters are truly geometrical, however, on the other hand it is this characteristic that makes them illegible in smaller sizes. Lowercase letters like the ‘a’ are the exception when it comes to the even width. Among them, historic letter combinations such as ‘ft’, a ligature reminiscent of Futura, and one that the editor Jakob Hegener apparently compared to the shape of a horseshoe magnet.21 A stylistic set of particularly “German features” has also been added: ‘7’ with a crossbar and a long ‘s’. It was designed in semicircles instead and thus supported the ability to swing. First came Zeppelin in 1929, followed by Prisma a year later. In the fourth commandment of his manifesto it reads: “The elementary form of type shall be sans serif [Groteskschrift] in all its variants”. Renner wasn’t involved with the Bauhaus but did share the same ideology of stripping forms down to their essence. 14 Garnituren, Frankfurt/Main, 6 Christopher Burke: Paul Renner. Volkswagen wanted a distinct typeface and started developing its own rounded Futura, but it stopped using this version in the early 1990s. Read part 2: Type Terminology: Old Style. Their Albers Collection, collaboratively produced with the Josef Albers Foundation, includes both Schablonenschrift and the later Kombinationsschrift. A geometric sans serif, designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. This was a typographic style many type designers was striving to achieve during this time. The large x-height was in fact a characteristic applied by ITC to its redesigns and a welcomed feature in advertising. Both offer quite extensive collections of early geometric sans serif typefaces. Overall Avenir can be regarded as a true geometric sans serif, optically adjusted and refined for pleasant reading. 2” transforms it into Futura – “Special No. Just as much as the original design of the Freischwinger could neither be fully attributed to Mart Stam nor to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (or even to Marcel Breuer, as some historians like to believe), no type designer can claim to have invented the geometric sans. https://www.fontshop.com/content/short-intro-to-geometric-sans After all, the simplicity and original idea behind Universalschrift was its monocase concept. It is not bolder than Neuzeit-Grotesk’s regular weight, but lighter and it is equipped with its own Kräftige Neuzeit-Buchschrift (literally strong, commonly a weight that sits between regular and medium). These fonts are ultra modern, but their structure makes them awkward to read, especially in lowercase. Typefaces are an expression of their time. Original specimen of all the typefaces mentioned above, issued by the respective foundries. Each letter has its own characteristics, yet they all share the same elements. One that is designed consistently throughout and that has undergone tremendous improvement in terms of legibility is FF DIN, regularly ranked among FontShop’s bestsellers. We hope you enjoyed this Futura font history article. Vogue commissioned a custom version of Futura for its own redesign. Overall the shapes are quite wide which helps provide a homogeneous appearance on the page. In this article, we’ll talk all about the Futura font history, its conception, the font anatomy, its influence through time, and the endless versions that exist. It was designed as a contribution on the New Frankfurt-project. Technische Abhandlungen und Berichte ueber die Neuheiten auf dem Gesamtgebiet der graphischen Künste, issue 21, Frankfurt / Main 1928, 9 Please see the entry for Kristall Grotesk in Philipp Th. Over the following years Neuzeit-Grotesk was gradually extended to a larger family. We’ve seen it everywhere from cars to furniture stores to the Moon. The long ascenders/descenders require more line spacing than a regular serif font. Initially, Volkswagen used Futura as its typeface. Shaw writes: “Dwiggins was asked to design alternate characters for A, G, J, M, N, V, W, a, e, g, v and w. The revised face was dubbed Metroblack no. The prototype was drawn in a light weight, later the typeface was produced in six fine gradations including light, book and regular, medium, heavy and black. In this article, we tell you all about the Futura font history and its impact on the design world. The free version include Exterior Light & Exterior Light Rough.This extremely unique typeface is great for headlines, products, … In this […]. In 1926, the Berlin Funkturm – a transmitting tower with an observation platform first opened to the public enabling new perspectives on the metropolis. Although Berthold-Grotesk is a fully developed sans serif, available in several weights, it is not so well known today. In the United Kingdom Elegant-Grotesk was distributed by the Stephenson Blake type foundry who renamed it Guildford Sans. It’s the most precise typeface I’ve ever drawn.”19. Other type foundries like Linotype commissioned W.A.