Hi Myron,

I assume this is Via, a font family that has been designed by Kontrapunkt for the Danish Railways (DSB).
F

Two more quotes, with links:

In 1997 Danish design agency Kontrapunkt designed the new typeface ‘Via’ for the Danish State Railways to replace the previous ‘British Rail’ typeface who looks like Helvetica Bold. — Claus Eggers Sørensen: Danish Humanist Modernism at forthehearts.net

Bo Linnemann [of Kontrapunkt] professed being influenced by Knud Engelhardt, the famous Danish architect who lived about 100 years ago. The guiding principle in all of Linnemann’s work, accordingly, is legibility. Engelhardt used to open up glyphs such as A, M and N. Linnemann’s face VIA for the Danish Railways (DSB) has inner spaces bigger than those of Helvetica, which was the face used previously by DSB. VIA’s identity is in the lower case g, a neat feature found in more and more corporate typefaces these days. — Luc Devroye: Report of ATypI 2001

That 'g' is hauntingly familiar, and obviously not typical. I just can't think (yet) where I've seen it, but I think it is a fairly recent typeface.I thought it might have been a Dutch designer, but I couldn't find it in the "Dutch Type" book by Jan Middendorp.

- Mike Yanega

I see Florian's been busy while I perused my books. Makes sense they would have used Danish designers.

- Mike Yanega

Wow thanks for the information. Searching "copenhagen train station font" got me nowhere...

Thanks!

You’re welcome!

That ’g’ is hauntingly familiar, and obviously not typical.

At this year’s Typo Berlin, Erik Spiekermann named this ultra-open ‘g’ the Danish g. In fact, this style seems to be quite popular in Denmark – and Sweden. Thomas aka Formschub compiled some of his favourite ‘g’s in a fabulous ‘g-trospektive’, with most of the fonts actually coming from Scandinavia. In addition to his great list, there is Elliot Samuels by Hans Samuelson, Trotzkopf and Naniara by Bo Berndal or Dandygal by Jakob Fischer.
Having said that, Hobo is not a Scandinavian design. And even Germans can do freaky ‘g’s: just have a look at Verena Gerlach’s FF Karbid Display. Gee!
F

"Gee!"
That was so funny :)

Hello,

new food for this thread: I just discovered that the German ad agency Reinhard Ostmann from Hamburg seems to use the Danish DSB font for its corporate identity. This would mean that the font is available outside the DSB, either for commercial purchase or via another sort of distribution. My research on the web, however, did not yet return any result. Maybe someone has got a hint? I'd really love to buy the font.

Typophile greetings

formschub (Thomas)
_______

Design means: thinking comes first.

Just discovered another outstanding ‘g’ in an older thread …

A few fonts I have discovered that might qualify to be in the "g-trospective" are: Every OSF and Every Condensed, by Victor de Castro (Unifonts), Target and Tantalus by Tomi Haaparanta (T-26), Percolator by Adam Roe (T-26), Metamorphosis and Interviewer by Anuthin Wongsunkakon (T-26), Jones by ? (T-26), Formica and Beetle by Toby Stokes (T-26), Fox by ? (T-26), Roland and Uniglow by Jim Marcus (T-26), Monolein by Joseph Stitzlein (T-26), Compass and Septa by Ramiz Guseynov (T-26), Fasciani Senza by Lee Fasciani (T-26), Xyperformulaic by Matius Gerardo Grieck (T-26), and last but not least, Parma-Petit by Manfred Klein (once for A*I, now free).

From this list it's apparent that T-26 is home to many odd g's (and this was not a complete list of the oddities, believe me).

- Mike Yanega

One of my danish classmates here in Reading, Claus Eggers Sørensen, designed a typeface with a similar g: Kulby.

@formschub

Thomas, i looked at that pdf file from Reinhard Ostmann in Acrobat Professional, to find out the font names.. That font is called "Eklektra", but searching the web delivered absolutely zero results. Too bad.

Best wishes,
Jörg

Hello,

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy the DSB typeface Via? I can't find it anywhere and really need it for a student project I am working on.

Thanks.