New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
Akzidenz Grtotesk Specimen
Posted by pedamado in
10 Nov 2005 — 5:46pm
10 Nov 2005 — 5:46pm
I'm designing a simple grotesque based on Akzidenz. The problem is I don't know the original drawings - only the digital redesigns of Berthold Foundry.
Anybody knows where I can find a type specimen of Hermann Berthold's 1898 original Akzidenz Grotesk design?
Cheers,
Pedro
User login
Support our Sponsors
10 Nov 2005 — 8:13pm
Chicago?
10 Nov 2005 — 9:33pm
Tiff,
Do you think those guys would actually help Pedro? That would surprise me.
ChrisL
11 Nov 2005 — 11:50am
Be careful, Berthold (now in US. This company is quite different from the original Berthold foundry in Germany) is said to be famous for sueing people who (they feel) copy their typeface designs or typeface names.
Manfred Klein: Type & Typographers (London: Architectural Design & Technology Press 1991) has an article about Akzidenz Grotesk. There is a small reproduction of a 1899 specimen.
In 'Typografische Monatsblaetter 2 2003' there are some interesting remarks about Akzidenz Grotesk, but unfortaunately only in German. And there are no reproductions of original specimen in it.
According to Guenter Gerhard Lange (artistic director at Berthold - in Germany - from the mid-1960ies until it closed down) in Typografische Monatsblaetter, Berthold bought different smaller typefoundries, amongst it Ferdinand Theinhardt's foundry. Akzidenz Grotesk is a family of heterogenous typefaces of different origins. The basic set of Akzidenz Grotesk was cut by Ferdinand Theinhardt. Its original name was Royal Grotesk.
In St Bride, London, there is a type specimen by Ferdinand Theinhardt's foundry from c. 1895 with a sans serif which looks like a (littlt bit clumsier) proto-version of Akzidenz-Grotesk, but this is not called Royal Grotesk but rather Breite Grotesque.
If you find some other specimen, please let me know.
11 Nov 2005 — 12:45pm
"Be careful, Berthold (now in US. This company is quite different from the original Berthold foundry in Germany) is said to be famous for sueing people who (they feel) copy their typeface designs or typeface names."
This is precisely what I meant with my post above yours Wolfgang. I would be surprised if the "quite different from the original Berthold" you spoke of would be very helpful to someone like Pedro who is trying to do an honest, scholarly revival of AG.
ChrisL