a friendly font Meta was a font created in 1991 by the German typographer Erik Spiekermann. Meta is a humanist san serif font that can be grouped with other fonts such as Gill Sans and Helvetica.
1 ERIK SPIEKERMANN SLANTED FINIALS
Erik Spiekermann was When it comes to the design On February 8th, 1989 , Spiekermann and his wife Joan started born in on May 30, 1947, in of typefaces, Spiekermann FontShop, a digital typeface foundry and distributor of fonts. Stadthagen, Germany. He sees himself as more of a Joan Spiekermann describes the beginning of the foundry as, is equally comfortable and problem solver than an artist. “We had this thing that whenever we were aware of an obvi- prolific as a writer, graphic His process for beginning a ously good product being unavailable, we would think and typeface designer, new typeface is simple and ‘loophole in the market,’ as you do. Yet this time the combina- but type has always been straightforward. “Identify a tion of digital type and Erik-the-type-man clicked. We both at the epicenter of this problem — like space saving, thought “hmmm,” and so it came about. I packed in my job communication dynamo. bad paper, low resolution, as office manager in an English design agency in Berlin and Even as a child, Spieker- on-screen use — then find started the untested process of opening the first-ever mail mann was drawn to the typefaces that almost work order font boutique.” typographic arts. “I had but could be improved,” he a little printing press explains. “Study them. Note and taught myself to the approaches and fail- set type when I was ings. Sleep on it, then start twelve,” he recalls. sketching without looking “Years later, when I at anything else.” went to university to “ I’m not a very good designer or study art history, I made a living as a manager, I’m ‘medium’ at both. ” letterpress printer and metal typesetter.”
2 | 3 “The problem with designing typefaces is that 90% has to look like everything else, because an A has to be an A and a B has to be a B. But you have to use that other 10% of leeway to make it look different! ” ORIGINS
A a B b C c D d BOX-LIKE SLANTED In 1984, the German State the project was canceled. The By 1993, the new FF MetaPlus COUNTER FINIALS Post Office, the Bundespost, Bundespost returned to using corrected the crossbar on the was persuaded by Erik one of its many previous type- lowercase “t” and revised the Spiekermann of MetaDe- faces, Helvetica, assuming that font’s spacing and kerning. At E e F f G g H h sign to commission a new, digital type would not catch on. this time, the family included exclusive font for use on Normal, Book, Medium, Bold, all of the Bundespost’s In 1989, after design software and Black weights in Roman, printed material. The aim made creating new fonts more Italic, Small Caps and Italic I i J j K k L l of the project, which efficient, MetaDesign refined Small Caps. 1998 saw the began in 1985, was to the Bundespost typeface for its name revert back to FF Meta, develop a face that was own exclusive use, renaming which was reorganized into FF M m N n O o P p easy to read in small it Meta. Initially, Meta was just Meta Normal, FF Meta Book, sizes, available in used for in-house projects, FF Meta Medium,FF Meta Bold, several weights, but soon MetaDesign began and FF Meta Black, all with Q q R r S s T t unmistakable as to use it in mail-order cata- Roman, Italic, Small Caps, and an identity, and logs for FontShop, the digital Italic Small Caps options. The technologIcally type foundry confounded total fonts in the FF Meta family up-to-date. by Erik Spiekermann. Font- rounded sixty. U u V v W w X x Shop encouraged the parent Although the company to license the face. font was Released as FF Meta, it has Y y Z z digitized, become one of the most tested, and successful typefaces available approved in from FonFont, a subsidiary OVULAR APERTURE the summer of FontShop. of 1985, 4 | 5 Grüß dich! CHARACTERISTICS I’m Meta.
As for the construction of the slightly curved. The junction letterforms, Meta has capitals and base of the W are both with flat apices, similar to those flat. The Z has angled finials on of Helvetica. It has a wider both ends, unlike the lower- opening in the C, which also case z, which has an upright has angled finials. Angled finial at the top and an angled finials also occur in the top one at the bottom. strokes of the E, F, G, and on both ends of the S. Several of Meta’s lowercase The E has an extended letters have particular traits base, while the base of that distinguish the face the G has no spur and from other sans serifs. The the J, no loop. The K ascenders of the b, k, h, and l has one junction, and are slightly bent at the top, a Erik Spiekermann’s first sketch for Meta, January 15th, 1985 The unusual lowercase G was the first letterform that Spiekermann experimented with. the junction of the M feature that is carried through rests on the baseline, the stems of the m, n, p, q, and like Helvetica, except the spur of the u. The finials that Meta stems are of the v, w, and y are slightly oblique. The tail of angles, unlike the Meta family the Q is wavy and capital letters. Test sheet for Deutsche Bundespost, 1985 the leg of the R is Sketches to apply the new font to the company’s name.
6 | 7 Guten tag. I’m Helvetica. COMPARISONS
Helvetica Meta LOWER Helvetica was designed in 1957 by Swiss designers Max The dots for each font reflect their X-HEIGHT function; Helvetica’s rectangle is Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman of Haas Typefoundry. The sans- much more utilitarian. There is also serif font was designed to maximize clarity on signage, while a marked difference between the x having no inherent meaning in its form. height and length of descenders.
Other distinguishing features include the double-storied TERMINAL j g that has a highly unusual open bowl. This is a feature j shared by the transitional typefaces Baskerville and Unlike Meta, Helvetica’s terminals are cut at horizontal and vertical lines. Cheltenham; only a few other sans-serif typefaces, such The Helvetica counters are much more as Meta, have this feature. The l has a slight curved tail curvalinear and the bowl more ovular. and the y has an offset junction. Meta is overall a more condensed face, with only a slightly lower x-height. COUNTER a TERMINAL Both Meta and Helvetica have thin shoulders. While the dots of Meta letterforms and punctuation are a rounded, Helvetica has square dots. The nuanced Meta’s counter has a vertical line while the Helvetica counter is completely construction of the Meta typefaces sets it apart round. Helvetica lacks terminals though has a similar horizontal stress. from Helvetica’s regularized structure, creating the HORIZONTAL face’s appealing personality. STRESS b b BOWL Meta has been called “the Helvetica of the nineties.”
8 | 9 Cheerio!
Early sketches for Meta, 1985 Notice the experimentation with different weights.
Sketches for Meta medium Erik Spiekermann, 1985 I am Gill Sans.
Gill Sans Meta
EAR Meta’s descender isn’t closed like the Eric Gill created Gill Sans in 1927. Its cap height is actually that one in Gill Sans, which has a much BOWL closer horizontal relationship to the of Meta’s, but does not feature ascenders that rise above this upper bowl. The Meta G has the signa- line. Gill Sans has a lower x-height. ture curved ear. DESCENDER g g Unlike Meta, its finials are cut with vertical lines. As a whole, Meta is more condensed that Gill Sans and the counters in the O’s are much more ovular. The base of The bowls in Gill Sans have much more the W’s and V’s in Meta are much flatter than the points consistant widths that those in Meta, COUNTER whose counter rises upwards before of Gill Sans. The lower case B and D have stems that curving.Additionally, the stems in meet the baseline, while those letters in Gill Sans have STEM STEM Meta ascend from the bowls, though p p don’t change the overall height. stems that have been merged with the bowls. The relationship between the two terminals in Meta’s lowercase F extend to a much closer distance than the terminals in Gill Sans, which create a stronger LOWER ARM There is a significant difference between diagonal. The juncture in Meta’s lower case Y is the height of the lowercase R’s. The arm X-HEIGHT in the Gill Sans letterform extends much offset, while there is no horizontal at the baseline r r farther than that of Meta. of the Gill Sans Y.
10 | 11 © 2010 Jenna Stempel BIBLIOGRAPHY
All rights reserved. No part of Annand, Carolyn. Revival of the this book may be reproduced Fittest: Digital Versions of Clas- in any form by any electronic sic Typefaces; edited by Philip or mechanical means (includ- B. Meggs and Roy McKelvey, ing photocopying, recording, New York: RC Publications, or information storage and c2000. (A&A: Z250 .R45 2000) retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. Peters, Yves. “Meta-morpho- sis: How FF MetaPlus Became Jenna Stempel is a FF Meta.” The FontFeed | Fonts, Communication Design student Typography, Lettering, Design. at the Sam Fox School of 2 Oct. 2005. Web. 16 Nov. Design & Visual Arts at 2010.