Historic Type Poster: Akzidenz-Grotesk
CMAT 357: Principles of Design
This poster was created for my Principles of Design class. For the assignment, we had to write a paper on a famous typographer and typeface and then design a poster for that typeface using just type and the paper as body copy. I chose Akzidenz-Grotesk.
This design was inspired by the works of Joseph Müller Brockman and the Swiss design movement.
The Paper:
Whenever typography comes up in conversation with friends, family, and even other graphic designers, 99% of the time they eventually tell me something along the lines of “My favorite font is Helvetica” (or sometimes Futura or Gotham). Typically, when people think of good typography, they tend to think of san serif typefaces. San serif typefaces have played a major part in today's design. However, there’s a chance none of these would have existed at all if it weren’t for Akzidenz-Grotesk by The Berthold Type Company.
Hermann Berthold was born in 1831. Hermann studied galvanography for an apprenticeship as a precision hand-tool maker. This experience led Hermann to create the Institute for Galvano Technology in 1858. At the same time, Hermann created The Berthold Type Company. Hermann’s background in galvanography helped Hermann discover a way to produce circular lines from brass. This quality caused his typefaces to become the most popular typefaces at the time. Hermann’s typefaces where so exquisite that they caused printmakers to coin the term “as precise as Berthold brass.” In 1878, Hermann was commissioned to create a standard measurement system for type. His measurement (1m= 2,660pt) is still used in the industry to this day. Hermann was the head of The Berthold Type Company until 1888 and passed away in 1904.
Akzidenz-Grotesk, also known as “standard”, is a Grotesque sans-serif typeface. Akzidenz-Grotesk first appeared “Accidenz-Grotesk” in an advertisement for the Berthold Type Foundry and Bauer & Co. in 1860. The name roughly translates to trade type or commercial (Akzidenz) sans serif (Grotesk). Akzidenz-Grotesk was not designed altogether by one designer as one family but instead is made of different san-serifs from foundries that Berthold bought. One of the typefaces included was Royal Grotesk by Ferdinand Theindhart, which Berthold acquired after buying Theindhart’s foundry. Since the type family is composed of many different typefaces, there are many inconsistencies between different weights. This typeface was designed with the purpose of being used as a display typeface on large signage and in print media. When it was released, Akzidenz-Grotesk gave designers the ability to contrast and emphasize with one family of type in a way that no one else did before, forever changing the way type was designed. Some of the key characteristics of this typeface are its not-so horizontal crosses on letters such as s, c, and e, an uppercase G with a vertical spur instead of a horizontal spur, the short tail on the uppercase Q, and the straight leg on the uppercase R.
Akzidenz-Grotesk’s biggest claim to fame is that it is the typeface that inspired and provided the framework for all the other sans serif typefaces. Akzidenz-Grotesk led to other sans serif typefaces being created during the early 20th century such as Futura, Gill Sans, and DIN. In 1957, typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman created the typeface Neue Hass Grotesk. Meidinger used Akzidenz-Grotesk as a model for Neue Hass Grotesk. Neue Hass Grotesk was meant to be like Akzidenz-Grotesk without the inconsistencies and more refined geometric properties. Eventually, Neue Hass Grotesk was renamed to Helvetica, which is undoubtedly one of the most famous typefaces of all time.
As for graphic design, Akzidenz-Grotesk played a major role in the Swiss design movement that happened in the mid-1900’s. Akzidenz-Grotesk was used in the highly influential Swiss design publication Neue Grafik or New Graphic Design, which began production in 1959. One of Akzidenz-Grotesk’s biggest users was famous Swiss poster designer Josef Müller-Brockman. Josef used Akzidenz-Grotesk on a majority of his most famous works such as his Der Film exhibition poster, Swiss Auto Club poster, and “Less Noise” poster. Josef used Akzidenz-Grotesk because his designs were meant to be universal, objective, and impersonal to the viewer. Akzidenz-Grotesk is still being used today in a lot of modern branding campaigns such as The Red Cross, McDonald's, and Donald Trump’s political campaign.
The beauty of Akzidenz-Grotesk is that it features the clean, futuristic, precise look that most geometric san serif typefaces have, but it’s inconsistencies cause it to look more human. Designers can use Akzidenz-Grotesk to achieve a modern and serious look while giving the reader a human-like feeling that they can connect with. It’s traits like these that make Akzidenz-Grotesk a timeless masterpiece of typography.
