Font Designer – Walter Höhnisch

Walter Höhnisch was born in February 14, 1906 in Dresden. Trained as salesman, then worked as a trainee in an advertising agency. Evening courses at the Akademie für Kunstgewerbe Dresden (Dresden Arts and Crafts Academy). 1927 – attended typographic classes with Rudolf Koch at the Technische Lehranstalten Offenbach (Offenbach Technical Education Institutes). At the same time, worked at the Ludwig & Maier type foundry, becoming a type designer there in 1930. After WW2 became graphic artist and type designer at Ludwig & Maier from 1949 to 1971. Lives in Lehre-Flechtorf near Braunschweig.
In 1937 Walter Höhnisch created the font Candida® italic. Candida roman was designed by Jakob Erbar and appeared after his death with Ludwig & Mayer in 1936. Due to the original designer’s death, the italic was desinged by Walter Höhnisch shortly thereafter. In 1945 the roman was reworked, the breadth of the figures was reduced and the strokes made heavier. The bold weight followed in 1951. Later the typeface was expanded with further weights, which have for the most part fallen out of use. Three weights can still be found in catalogues, available as early as 1937 for the Linotype machine. Candida is a modest text font which retains its legibility even in smaller point sizes.
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