Questa is a project from the well- were fashionable at the time. Superimposing, known Dutch type designers Jos Buivenga and for example, Walbaum and Akzidenz Grotesk Martin Majoor. Their collaboration began with reveals they share the same skeleton in many sketches for a squarish Didot-like that areas. Buivenga originally had planned in one display A typeface like could be consid- style. It was a perfect base upon which to apply ered a revival of Akzidenz Grotesk, but it would Majoor's type design philosophy outlining the be better to call it a blatant copy. Although genesis of sans serifs in print. Majoor argues Questa Sans has many similarities to Akzidenz that a typeface is the natural basis for Grotesk, it is neither a revival nor a copy. In- creating a sans version. stead, Questa Sans is derived purely from the The first step Buivenga and Majoor took was serif version of Questa, making it an original to shelve the display version. Keeping the first sans serif typeface. Questa Sans follows the sketches in mind, they started from scratch path of history by basing its shapes on a serif by designing a high-contrast text face in a typeface, rather than on existing sans serif classicistic style that resembled like typefaces. Bodoni, Didot, andWalbaum. FoUowing this The italics of Questa Sans are again based path assured them that Questa was not a reviv- on those of its serifed counterpart, something al of any of these three, but rather an original that cannot be found in the italics of most Akzi- classicistic typeface. denz Grotesk-like typefaces, with their sloped Compared to a typeface like Didot, the ital- roman shapes. In fact, Questa Sans Italic shows ics of Questa are more upright and its shapes what the first italic sans serifs should have are quite modern. There is even a place for looked like. some style elemients from the humanistic era. The last version is Questa Grande, again The strong text color of both roman and italic based on the text version of Questa. This dis- makes Questa extremely suitable for print as play typeface, with its very thin hairline ser- • well as for use on screens. ifs, is designed in the spirit of the best work of Questa Sans is directly based on the serif Giambattista Bodoni. Where the text version version, resulting in an almost Akzidenz-Grotesk- of Questa has an almost workhorse-like quali- like typeface. Akzidenz Grotesk came into being ty, Questa Grande is extremely elegant and re- around 1900 as one of the firstseriou s sans fined in detail. Both the very first sketches of serifs. Given the fact that before that time there Questa and the last designs of Questa Grande were no serious sans serifs, Akzidenz must are display types, thus closing the circle of the have been based on the serif text faces that Questa Project.

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jthtr a^'Mn ana we both felt that the time in Dortm^und was too with Jos Buivenga on Questa, a didot-like typeface that will al^ oject togetner. Going through the options ive stumbled on Questi foilovving the path of copying Akzidenz (liKe in Helvetica hasj enough vossibilities to Use that as a, basis to create a, text versic for all the things we wana^.a lu ^>í;c¿rt;. iJiA^dv^in/iniiiiin-i a^œr afi ture a sans serif version in the suirit of .AJ<:zidenz Grotesk. Thi quarisn Didot-like font that ï originally had planned in one dis} done), but ratner create an original sans that is based on an oi aAwp.ll dfi a fians,-fiP.rif. aU imt'h tnip itnlirs:. VJp hnth hnvp hiisiv

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