Date: 1989
Designer:
Neville Brody
Foundry:
Linotype
Location:
London, England
Current equivalent:
Insignia
See also:
Stadia (unlicensed American version)
Technologies:
Postscript
Famous for:
Innovative 1980s magazine display typeface.
Applications: Advertising and Display
Ubiquity:
Average use
Category:
Sans Serif Geometric
Stress: Vertical
Serifs: Sans Serif
Design history:
Insignia was originally based on a golfball typewriter face, like Courier. Brody drew the Insignia typeface by hand in two styles for the display masthead of the magazine 'Arena'. Because of the rigid geometry of the design it was widely believed that Brody had used a Macintosh computer to generate the font and was arguing for 'the digital revolution'. In fact the reverse was the case. This typeface was illegally pirated, before Brody joined forces with Erik Spiekermann to found Fontshop in 1990 and release his own typefaces directly. Brody went on to create a number of other popular typefaces with Fontshop, as well as the critically successful Fuse typographic magazine.
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