| Date: 1898
Designer:
Hans Hoffmann
Foundry:
Berthold, Wagner and Schmidt
Location:
Berlin, Germany
Current equivalent:
Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk
See also:
Amsterdam Mercator, Bauer Venus, Stempel Reform Grotesk, Haas Normal Grotesk, Bauer Folio, Linotype Basic Commercial. BT Gothic 725
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype |
| Famous for:
A definitive and widely imitated early sans serif design. Applications: Business and Corporate Ubiquity:
Very widely used Category:
Sans Serif Grotesque
Stress: Vertical
Serifs: Sans | | Design history:
Produced in 4 weights, and a critical success on its release, Akzidenz Grotesk was sold as Linotype Standard in England and the US. Later popularised by heavy use in publications from both the Bauhaus and the international (Swiss) style of the 1950s, 'A.G.' is seen as a pillar of typographic modernism and somehow purer than its near-descendant, Helvetica. The Akzidenz Grotesk name translates as 'odd-job sans serif' or 'trade gothic'. During the 1960s the German foundry Berthold produced a new series of the type under the direction of Gunter Gerhard Lange, with many extra weights, condensed and extended versions added. | |  |
