Tim Ahrens on the design of his typeface, Linotype Aroma: "I started designing Linotype Aroma about six months after discovering that Frutiger is not a brand of candy and Garamond not the name of a perfume. I didn't want it to be one of these bland, faceless fonts that sacrifice the natural, independent character of their figures to neutrality. I believe that beauty is often created coincidentally. For example, the beauty of propeller blades, whose design is like the transformation of a bird's wing, fascinates me. I like their organic and abstract form, which still carries the essence and complexity of the original. A bird's wing, a propeller: these are behind the formal concept of Aroma. Many contours have parabolic forms. The lower case r, for example, consists exclusively of lines and parabolic forms."
Tim Ahrens also decided to give his types a defined stroke contrast, as is usual for sans serif fonts. The end strokes of many letters are slightly convex, however, giving the font a natural and organic look. Linotype Aroma is a lively font with lots of personality and is suitable for longer texts.
Linotype Aroma was originally designed in the pre-OpenType era; now Linotype Aroma 2 is Tim's new and improved version. He saw this not just as a file conversion, but as an opportunity to enhance and upgrade his design for the Pro and Com formats. Many letterforms were refined so they are now smoother and more consistent throughout the fonts. Numerous additional characters, small caps, and new weights make Linotype Aroma 2 a truly useful and versatile type family.
