Commercial grotesque
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| font | Commercial grotesque |
| category | Sans serif linear antiqua |
| Font family | Commercial grotesque |
| Font classification | Grotesque |
| Font designer | unknown, Günter Gerhard Lange suspected Ferdinand Theinhardt (not proven) |
| Type foundry | H. Berthold AG, Berlin |
| Creation | 1898, some additional cuts earlier; Harmonization of the font styles in the 1950s and 60s |
| publication | 1898 |
| Alternative name | AG , Royal-Grotesk , Accidenz-Grotesk , Basic Commercial , Agba |
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The commercial web Grotesque , formerly accident of Grotesk , shortly AG , is a sans serif - font , which in 1898 by the H. Berthold AG was issued. It is considered a milestone in font design. Numerous fonts such as Helvetica were influenced by them.
history
Today's Akzidenz-Grotesk goes back to a series of originally incoherent font weights. Günter Gerhard Lange claimed in a 2003 interview in the magazine Typografische Monatsblätter that the German type cutter Ferdinand Theinhardt (1820–1906) cut four cuts in a sans serif under the name Royal Grotesk for the publications of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In 1908, H. Berthold AG took over Theinhardtsche type foundry and allegedly integrated the now very popular Royal into their family of commercial grotesque fonts. However, this theory has not been proven. So far there have been no examples of the Royal Grotesque in font patterns or applications from 1880 to 1908.
As far as we know today, the Akzidenz-Grotesk was created by Berthold. The normal style of the Akzidenz-Grotesk was first presented in 1898. A detailed joint advertisement with Bauer & Co. Stuttgart - a type foundry that Berthold took over in 1897 - appeared in 1899. The Royal-Grotesk was published in 1903 by Berthold. Semi-bold, bold and wide cuts followed by 1909. Older sans serif fonts from the Berthold catalog, such as the stone script and books sans serif, were integrated into the family, which from 1926 was offered uniformly under the name Akzidenz-Grotesk (now written with ›k‹). Only the lean Royal-Grotesk was available under its old name until the 1960s, but was advertised as being compatible with the Akzidenz-Grotesk family.
In general, with Akzidenz-Grotesk it must be taken into account that H. Berthold AG has repeatedly bought shares in other type foundries, or has taken them over entirely. As a result, there is the possibility that individual font weights or even individual types come from sans serif fonts from the companies taken over and that Akzidenz-Grotesk is to be understood more as a condensation of the works of many (Central) European typographers and type founders who have remained anonymous, rather than the ingenious opus of an individual . This is expressed in the fact that many stylistic inconsistencies are perceptible between the individual styles of today's commercial grotesque.
Akzidenz-Grotesk was designed as a distinctive typeface, as this type of typeface was increasingly in demand for advertising printing , which was gaining in importance at the time .
Marketing and sales - unresolved legal succession
The original Akzidenz-Grotesk was published in 1898 by H. Berthold AG , founded in 1858 , which was Germany's leading type foundry as early as 1900. It was definitely groundbreaking in its development, but lost its lead in the 1980s and filed for bankruptcy in 1993. Since then, the fonts have been marketed by various providers.
Chicago-based Berthold Types Ltd. , one of those companies that claims the copying rights to the fonts of H. Berthold AG, took over the distribution of the digital font library from Berthold and has released several new fonts under the direction of Günter Gerhard Lange, who retired in 1990, but until worked as an artistic advisor on his death in 2008. This company expanded the commercial grotesque to include Greek and Cyrillic. A variant was also released under the former name Royal Grotesk , which includes four font weights.
From 2008 Linotype began selling the Berthold fonts in the web shop.
- Directory of the commercial grotesque from H. Berthold AG
| Cut (Berthold name) | First casting | Font design |
|---|---|---|
| skinny | 1903 | House cut |
| normal | 1898 | House cut |
| italic | 1967 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| semi-bold | 1909 | House cut |
| italic bold | 1963 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| fat | 1909 | House cut |
| italic bold | 1968 1 ) | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| great | 1968 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| narrow lean | 1953 | House cut |
| closely | 1912 | House cut |
| narrow semi-fat | 1896 | House cut |
| narrow fat | 1896 | House cut |
| extra | 1958 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| italic extra | 1968 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| extra fat | 1966 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| skeleton | 1914 | House cut |
| skinny | 1911 | House cut |
| wide | 1908 | House cut |
| broad semi-fat | 1963 2 ) | House cut |
| broad fat | 1957 | House cut |
| italic bold | 1957 1 ) | House cut |
| Book ultralight | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book italic ultralight | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book lean | 1969 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book italic lean | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book normal | 1969 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book in italics | 1969 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book in bold | 1969 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book in italics in bold | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book bold | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book in bold italics | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book skinny | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book italic narrow-skimmed | 1973 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book narrow | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book narrow half bold | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book thin bold | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book wide-skinned | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book wide | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book wide half bold | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book wide bold | 1972 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book semi bold light | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book bold light | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book inline bold shaded | 19 ?? | ? |
| Book Rounded normal | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book Rounded in bold | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book Rounded in bold | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book Rounded narrow bold | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book Rounded semi-bold light | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book Rounded bold light | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book Rounded light bold | 1980 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Book shaded white bold | 19 ?? | ? |
| Book stencil half bold | 1985 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Old Face normal | 1984 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Old Face semi-bold | 1984 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Old Face bold | 1984 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Old Face light | 1984 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Old Face bold light | 1984 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| Old face shaded | 1984 | Günter Gerhard Lange |
| School book normal | 1983 | House cut |
| School book in bold | 1983 | House cut |
| Series 57 | 1959 | House cut |
| Series 57 in italics | 1967 | House cut |
| Series 58 semi-bold | 1959 | House cut |
| tight (russian) | 1927 | House cut |
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1 ) Klingspor Museum, H. Berthold AG 2 ) Berthold Types names 1961, Berthold sample card index according to DIN 16507, however, 1963 |
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influence
The designers of the following sans serif models often referred to familiar fonts.
Helvetica
The Akzidenz-Grotesk is considered to be the font from which Max Miedinger was inspired when designing the Neue Haas-Grotesk , which was later renamed Helvetica . Akzidenz-Grotesk and Helvetica are very similar. There are differences, for example, with the characters a, c, C, G, J, R, Q,?, 2 and 7. Furthermore, the central length of the Helvetica is greater.
Folio
At the same time as Helvetica, the Folio was launched in 1957 . It is also considered to be influenced by the commercial grotesque, but was not very successful.
Maxima
In the GDR, the most similar font available was Gert Wunderlich's Maxima . This was due to the fact that in the GDR area initially only fonts from Schriftguß KG / VEB Typoart and no fonts from the West were available.
Theinhardt
The Swiss company Optimo released a grotesque in 2009 under the name Theinhardt , which was designed by François Rappo and which is extremely similar to the commercial grotesque. It is used by the New York Times Magazine as a markup font.
Classification of the script
- According to DIN 16518 , the commercial grotesque is categorized in Group VI - Sans Serif Linear Antiqua
- In the classification according to shape of principle it is used as static sans designated
Use of the font (examples)
- At the Braun company , the font was included in the company's design guidelines in 1955, commissioned by Otl Aicher , former rector of Ulm hfg .
- For Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign in the 2012 French presidential election , the slogan LA FRANCE FORTE was set in the commercial grotesque.
- Credit Suisse , McDonald’s , Nissan , Subaru , Vimentis and Flughafen Zürich AG use / used the commercial typeface .
- The signage system of the New York subway designed by Massimo Vignelli originally used the Akzidenz-Grotesk (today Helvetica).
- The magazine Technology Review of MIT used commercial web sans serif as for title page, title, table of contents and info boxes.
- Saab Automobile has been using the font since 2013 .
- The commercial grotesque is used for the Donald Trump logo .
- The Spar chain uses the font for the illustrated side of the labels of its premium brand SPAR Premium .
- The American Red Cross uses the commercial grotesque in combination with the serif font Georgia .
- The Group of the Progressive Alliance of Social Democrats in the European Parliament uses the Akzidenz grotesk for its logo.
- A variant of the Akzidenz grotesque was used for station signs in Switzerland until 1981 .
- Examples of the use of the commercial grotesque
Akzidenz-Grotesk was once the house font of the electrical appliance manufacturer Braun
The signage system of the New York subway was based on the Akzidenz-Grotesk from 1967 to 1979
The Akzidenz Grotesk was slightly modified for the logo of the cosmetics group L'Oréal .
Former Credit Suisse logo set in Akzidenz-Grotesk, 1997–2006
The commercial grotesque served as the basis for the logo of the French Areva group
25 anniversary of the GDR. In the background, the motto is set in Akzidenz-Grotesk
The lettering Trump by Donald Trump is set in the commercial grotesque.
Sarkozy in the election campaign. The slogan “La France Forte” is set in the commercial grotesque
RECARO logo
American Red Cross logo
Lettering of the Austrian football league set in Akzidenz Grotesk
Swiss station sign in Akzidenz-Grotesk
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.JPG)
Web links
- Akzidenz-Grotesk-Historik (100besteschriften.de)
- Akzidenz-Grotesk at Typophile (English)
- Commercial grotesque typeset pattern poster
swell
- ↑ Günter Gerhard Lange at MyFonts
- ^ Linotype website
- ^ Berthold Types, Berthold & Callwey, Berlin and Munich, 1985
- ↑ Font index according to DIN 16507, H. Berthold AG
- ↑ Handbook of Fonts, Albrecht Seemann Verlag, Leipzig, undated (1926) and supplements
- ↑ Handbook of Fonts, Albrecht Seemann Verlag, Leipzig, supplement 1929, p. 19
- ↑ Nadine Schreiner: From appearance to “corporate design”: Contributions to the development process by Otl Aicher. Retrieved September 6, 2016 .
- ↑ http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/6883581231_9bc8c08d28_b.jpg
