Neo-Grotesk Or Neo-Grotesque Are Typefaces Designed Without a Serif
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Neo-Grotesk or Neo-Grotesque are typefaces designed without a serif, and in 1950, they became a favorite amongst modernist designers. Before the 50s, a Sans-Serif was described as Grotesque or Gothic, they featured higher stroke contrast and more stout forms. After the 50s, Sans-Serif came to be described as Neo-Grotesque, Transitional and even Anonymous Sans-Serif for their ubiquity and relatively understated look. Akzidenz-Grotesk is a typeface from 1896 that is classied as a Grotesque. It featured many of the details of a serif typeface but without the serifs, hence the name. It’s wide-set characters and stroke contrast was very much like its serif contemporaries. This early sans-serif has a spotty origin but it went on to inspire both Univers, a 1955 typeface from Adrian Frutiger that set off the Neo-Grotesk era, and Helvetica, Max Miedingers 1957 typeface and probably the most ubiquitous typeface of all time. These faces featured less contrast in their strokes, and less details in their forms. They were more condensed, and their x-heights higher than traditional typefaces. They both were after a level of functionality that its earliest predecessors could not achieve with their more traditional design styling or the geometric leanings of the Modernists. Their intention was to as clearly as possible deliver the message being spelled out in their characters. Founded on the principle that the message is the message, and the medium should do nothing but deliver it, Modernism took design by storm in the early 20s and held strong through the 50s. At rst, the fundamental ideals of modernism such as the purity of geometric shapes, the absence of decoration and the need to be functional before all else drove Sans-Serif typeface design. Geometric Sans-Serifs like Erbar (Jakob Erbar, 1922) and Futura (Paul Renner, 1927) were designed using simple shapes, to achieve something that said nothing of itself. Jan Tschicholds "Die Neu Typographie" set in stone the lessons that we still use today in regards to type and layout. This concept of design simply being a means of delivering a message of course became a movement in itself. But the focus on geometrics faded away and shifted to functionality. Helvetica and Univers were born out of this functional typography, and although the principles of early Modernism guided their design, they were a far departure from the geometric forms of the past. Instead their focus was on optical harmony, legibility and the transfer of ideas from type to reader. Ironically, as the Neo-Grotesks were born out of modernism, it was modernism that excised its geometric nature and made them more calligraphic. One would even say they began to take on personalities, like the typefaces predating the Neo-Grotesks were condemned by Modernists for doing so. The Neo-Grotesk era was focusing on the uses of the typeface to dene its form instead of relying entirely on mathematics. In the 60s and 70s, Eurostile (Aldo Novarese, 1962) and Syntax (Hans E. Meier, 1968) departed even farther from the purely rational and began adding touches of personality to their faces which doubled as functional. Typefaces became more condensed, x-heights grew and legibility increased. OCR-B (Adrian Frutiger, 1968) was created for Highway signage, optimized to be read while moving and from a distance. Frutiger itself was made for Airport signage. Their creation was for practical uses, such as ofces, or highway signs, and so science was the guiding principle behind many of these faces, not decoration. Bell Centennial, a quintessential Neo-Grotesk, was neither geometric nor calligraphic. It was introduced in 1976 by Matthew Carter to solve the problems of printing on thin paper and so took on a distinct and now infamous (among type designers) form. These typefaces, also known as Transitional, created a bridge between the Modern of 1920s and the Humanist, a category of sans-serif that came out of (but also developed parallel too) the Neo-Grotesk, but featured more details, often calligraphic ones, in the name of functionality. ELVETICA Ofcina in 1990 from Erik Spiekermann is another example of Humanist/Neo-Grotesk typefaces. Rounded corners, unaligned strokes, and many other calligraphic details make it one of the prettier Sans-Serifs, and it was designed for low resolution, economical printers. It was also based on the classic Neo-Grotesk Syntax. Helvetica even saw a touch up in the 80s, in the form of a more condensed, thinner stroked family called Helvetica Neue. In the last 50 years, Neo-Grotesk became the standard of ‘good design’, and even today, the Sans-Serif rules the roost in display, and is often being used in body. .