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5 Dutch Type Designers

Noah Nazir
5
Last edited September 12, 2018

Starting up FontShop was only the beginning of Erik Spiekermann‘s ventures in digital type. Soon after the launch of the original vendor of digital type he teamed up with that other famous graphic designer, Neville Brody, and founded FontFont, which has since then become the largest independent foundry of original type designs. Not only does it produce some contemporary classics, but it also houses wildly imaginative designs, and spearheaded many innovations in digital type technology.

The first release by the new FontFont foundry featured early typefaces by Martin Majoor, Max Kisman, Peter Verheul, Erik van Blokland, and Just van Rossum. Its printed type specimen was beautifully designed by Van Rossum, and produced in three language versions – English, Dutch and German. The title of the English version was “5 Dutch Type Designers”.

Read Martin Majoor’s recollections, and the interview with Erik Spiekermann on The FontFeed.

chalet
ultraviolets
Whatever you do, don’t regurgitate

The Handel Gothic™ typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years - all the while looking as current as tomorrow. Designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s, and used in the 1973 United Airlines logo developed by Saul Bass, Handel Gothic was an instant success when released to the graphic design community. Its generous lowercase x-height, full-bodied counters and square... Read More

rocket
enthusiastic
Hell: one way in and no way out

The process of making of FF Rosetta was closely linked to that of the fonts in the FF Kisman package, which contains five designs (FF Cutout, FF Network, FF Scratch, FF Scratch Outline and FF Vortex): all are display faces originally made for various magazines art-directed by Max Kisman, and designed on the earliest Macintosh computers.

grapes
enthusiastic
Life’s a bitch, and I’m a dog

The “FF Kisman” package is a collection of five display fonts originally made for various magazines art-directed by Max Kisman: FF Cutout, FF Network, FF Scratch, FF Scratch Outline and FF Vortex. FF Scratch was hand-cut from ulano masking film, and FF Cutout was made with scissors, too. FF Network, like FF Rosetta, was a very early Macintosh font designed for Kisman’s own use. All were... Read More

grapes
conceptional
Beware the hobby that eats

The “FF Kisman” package is a collection of five display fonts originally made for various magazines art-directed by Max Kisman: FF Cutout, FF Network, FF Scratch, FF Scratch Outline and FF Vortex. FF Scratch was hand-cut from ulano masking film, and FF Cutout was made with scissors, too. FF Network, like FF Rosetta, was a very early Macintosh font designed for Kisman’s own use. All were... Read More

vortex
fiddlesticks
If you're going through hell, keep walking

The “FF Kisman” package is a collection of five display fonts originally made for various magazines art-directed by Max Kisman: FF Cutout, FF Network, FF Scratch, FF Scratch Outline and FF Vortex. FF Scratch was hand-cut from ulano masking film, and FF Cutout was made with scissors, too. FF Network, like FF Rosetta, was a very early Macintosh font designed for Kisman’s own use. All were... Read More

jungle
fiddlesticks
Fly chair shaking his head

The “FF Kisman” package is a collection of five display fonts originally made for various magazines art-directed by Max Kisman: FF Cutout, FF Network, FF Scratch, FF Scratch Outline and FF Vortex. FF Scratch was hand-cut from ulano masking film, and FF Cutout was made with scissors, too. FF Network, like FF Rosetta, was a very early Macintosh font designed for Kisman’s own use. All were... Read More

replay
guitarfishes
Palace explodes diced chicken

FF Erikrighthand and FF Justlefthand are two of the first examples of loose, natural handwriting made to work as type. The software used to produce the designs was just being developed. It certainly didn’t hurt that Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum actually know “how to write.” That’s not to imply that van Blokland and van Rossum were merely literate, but rather that had been taught... Read More

safety
fiddlesticks
Advocate using civilization language

FF Erikrighthand and FF Justlefthand are two of the first examples of loose, natural handwriting made to work as type. The software used to produce the designs was just being developed. It certainly didn’t hurt that Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum actually know “how to write.” That’s not to imply that van Blokland and van Rossum were merely literate, but rather that had been taught... Read More

safety
ultraviolets
If you can’t join them, beat them

Jan Middendorp described FF Brokenscript in his book Dutch Type (2004) thus: “It is a study in Fraktur, or blackletter, possibly inspired by Gerrit Noordzij’s extensive writings on the subject.” One of the first blackletter typefaces in the FontFont library, the design takes cues from the early textura scribal tradition. The letterforms have been somewhat updated however, especially the... Read More

Donald Handel, Nadine Chahine and Rod McDonald
ITC 2010
Max Kisman
FontFont 1991
Max Kisman
FontFont 1991
Max Kisman
FontFont 1991
Max Kisman
FontFont 1991
Max Kisman
FontFont 1991
Erik van Blokland
FontFont 1990
Just van Rossum
FontFont 1991
Just van Rossum
FontFont 1991