The History of Linear, Sans Serif Typefaces

In certain areas, our perception of forms is constantly being refined. For instance, the eyes of car lovers (and there are plenty of them around) have continuously been trained to react to barely noticeable changes in the shapes of car bodies. Each year, the basic silhouette of any given car only changes very slightly – but after three years already, it is considered out-of-date. For typography professionals a similar process takes place every year with typefaces. New trends are continuously emerging in which new fonts are created or old one come back into use.
Based on these considerations, we have put together a comparison between cars and typefaces with regards to the respective developments in form.

1925
We’ll begin our comparison with a car from the year 1925. Several typical letters from sans serif typefaces developed at the same time can be seen beneath it. The mixture of purely circular and absolutely straight lines can be clearly identified in both examples – two distinct expressions of one and the same epoch (see Fig. 25a).

1955
In the following 30 years, the silhouette of the automobile underwent a complete transformation. One the hand, physical factors like an improved understanding of aerodynamics came into play, on the other hand, there was a general stylistic move towards the streamlined form. All right angles had disappeared, protruding elements like headlights and fenders were absorbed by the overall form. Everything functional was molded to conform to the aesthetic vision. In these years of unsurpassed economic prosperity, designers in all fields were driven by an unquenchable thirst for modernism. The creation of typefaces was subject to the exact same drive and brought forth the typically modulated and rounded forms of the new sans serif families (see Fig. 25b).
Only the strict rules of legibility kept type designers from streamlining the letters completely – so a few imperative details were able to be rescued. We’ll look at an example to illustrate this point. For the sake of aesthetics, there has always been a temptation to leave out the typical projections found in letters like b, d, m and n – projections which have their origin in calligraphy – in order to attain a "purer" outline which could be applied throughout the entire alphabet (see Fig. 26). Such conceptions are certainly acceptable in headlines, for longer text passages, however, this degree of deviation from the classic form would never be tolerated.

1975
The student revolts and general public tumult of 1968 managed to shake Europe out of its ideological and elitist reverie. Subsequently, the economic crisis of the 1970s brought about an overall repositioning of values. With regards to design, a new aesthetic was discovered in functional forms. The design or everyday articles was based more and more on rational and ergonomic considerations. For improved functioning and stability, cars were designed using angular shapes again and the use of chrome had all but vanished (see Fig. 25c). A fascination with raw materials was widespread, people rediscovered the comfort of cotton shirts and art printing paper was almost exclusively matte.

Vintage cars
A new formal attitude was taken towards the sans serif types in these years as well. It was recognized that some angular details in letters helped improve the immediate perception and readability of a word. As a result, old and often even somewhat jagged fonts came back into fashion, such as Franklin™, News Gothic™, Vectora™ and Venus®. In addition, Gill Sans™, which had never really completely been forgotten, was suddenly in great demand again. For expressly neutral messages, the constructed fonts from 1930 were applied. So, just like with automobiles, a new passion was discovered for all things vintage.

Grotesque hybrids
The creation of truly innovative sans serif fonts was not really possible anymore in the 1970s as, for the most part, all stylistic gaps had already been filled and the formal possibilities had all been explored. For this reason, new typefaces could only really be created as variations of already existing typefaces or hybrids which drew on various styles.

Syntax™
In 1969 Hans Eduard Meier created Syntax, a new font which was somewhat ahead of its time – not unusual for innovations. With slightly condensed spacing, it could be considered in the tradition of the Morris Fuller Benton font News Gothic™ (1909) which also made use of angular joins in the conception of the letters b, d, p, g, n, m and u (see Fig. 27). The diagonal endings of the angular strokes on the A, K, M, k, v, w etc. had already been seen before as well in Kabel™ (1928). Syntax had a refreshingly new and personal touch, primarily due to a complete reliance on roman type as a model, especially with regards to form and stroke use. Unfortunately, such a distinct reliance on form is almost always compromised as soon as other weights have to be drawn. A consistent design of the angular strokes was no longer possible in bold and extra bold, for instance. Today Hans Eduard Meier created a revised and extended Linotype Syntax family.

Frutiger™
At the beginning of the 1960s, the idea of a sans serif hybrid was already beginning to take seed, as the matrix factory Sofratype in Paris was looking for a new sans serif look. Based on the same idea, in 1970 a signage typeface was developed for the Roissy airport navigation system which required optimal legibility. The entire structuring of the font and the solution of the final details could claim to have been 100 years in the making, drawing on the entire rich heritage of sans serif design. For Linotype, the typeface was later extended to a family with 11 weights. Here, as well, the degree of variation was limited as, for instance, in the development of very wide or narrow styles. The only way to allow for infinite variants while maintaining consistent design was to ensure oblique endings of the curves, as in Univers™ (see Fig. 18). Bell Centennial™ (1938) could be considered the godfather of the Frutiger typeface family. To allow for best possible legibility in small sizes the type characters were reduced to a minimal, undecorated form. Details like the curve endings were kept very open and fortified with the addition of boldness. The figures in Bell (see Fig. 28) are a prime example of optimal readability. Today Adrian Frutiger and Linotype have improved Frutiger as a Platinum product which is called Frutiger Next.

Eras
In many respects, Eras (1976) by Albert Boton is a completely unique font, especially due to the wide, slightly diagonal layout and the maximal x-height. Another typical characteristic is the open loops on the a, P, R, 6 and 9 – a solution which suggests calligraphic influences. But despite these highly individual characteristics, the font design strictly adhered to a classic model, which is most certainly the reason why it was so quickly distributed around the world.