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Type ID Board

5 May 2012 — 9:56am

I came across this sign in Zurich, Switzerland. It's not one of the official signage typefaces used in the past. The sign is for the real estate administration of the city, but is not using Helvetica, the official typeface used by the city.

I'm looking for the typeface in the middle, although the title seems to be the same. It's not Aurora Grotesk, by the way.

Thanks!

oldnick
5 May 2012 — 1:31pm

The bolder letters may not be Aurora Grotesk Bold, but they certainly appear to be based on it—or, at least, the 1928 C. E. Weber release of same.

This sign was most likely silk-screened, so whoever cut or burned the stencil for the sign may have made a few amendments to an existing design—most notably, rounding the D a bit.

thierry blancpain
5 May 2012 — 2:20pm

thanks. do you have a scan of that 1928 release? the scans i've seen (and dada grotesk, which is based on it) have quite the different lowercase 'a', although there's a definitive relation between aurora and this.

oldnick
5 May 2012 — 2:37pm

the specimen of the Weber release in Encyclopædia of Type Faces—which reads Das Bauhaus De—shows a slightly flatter top on the /a/, and a more pronounced trap at the bottom where the bowl meets the stem. But—again—if the stencil was hand-cut, the artist may have taken a few other liberties besides making the /D/ less boxy.

thierry blancpain
7 May 2012 — 1:58am

you're right, there are quite a few irregularities in there. i guess it was a sloppy hand-cut of aurora then, most likely. thanks!

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