Very nice font. It reminds me of Frutiger or the signage fonts (Interstate, Transport, ...). The "p", "d" are like what I'm looking for but I just don't get the double storey "g" in this context. I'd also something to removes the stem completely on the "a", "m", "n", "u", etc

Sample of bliss

Also, if you are stuck on the dax look, but just want a variant, you can look at the designer's other faces besides dax: FF Sari and FF Schmalhans.

There doesn't appear to be an italic, but Barmeno has a very similar feel to Dax.

According to identifont.com, Reichel did Barmeno in 1983 (for Berthold), FF Schmalhans 96, FF Dax 95-97, FF Sari 99, FF Dax Condensed 2000. Tankard's Bliss is 96 (I think is shows influence of Reichel) and Prokyon by Ehard Kaiser (definitely influenced by Reichel) is I think this year.

I am curious whether the 'stemless look' has any other history than this.

how about my latest purchase

Fontbureaus Relay

There are a number of stemless 'tech'-look fonts shown in the Bauhaus-style Font ID Guide. Some that I thought might be worth considering are T-26's 'Flux' (Part 3 of the Guide); 'Leger' (also T-26) in Part 4, and Tabasco in Part 6. There are others but you know best what you are looking for. Even good old Bernhard Gothic has stemlessness going for it. It shows that sometimes even 'old' can look 'tech' if you wait long enough. ;-)

My point about the Bauhaus-style fonts is that even though many of the samples in the Guide are modern fonts, their simplified geometric forms owe very much to the styles of Herbert Bayer and his stylistic movement. Sans serif styles were already a measure of simplification over serif fonts, and the Bauhaus-style carries it further by reducing many of the forms to as simple a shape as possible. Bayer even wanted to reduce the alphabet to uncials to simplify it to its limit, I guess. The arc-shaped 'n' in so many of these styles is one of the earmarks to me, but the stemless 'n' (as in Dax and Bernhard Gothic) is a stylistic compromise to retain a bit more of the familiar form. The (to me) grotesquely ugly square 'tech' look takes this simplification to the direction of avoiding curved lines, and I think begins to lose contact with anything human (hence the 'tech' label). You can have it, if it means draining all the life out of the letters. Cunieform letters also avoided curves, but for a reason related to the medium (clay) and the writing tool (stylus) that makes much more human sense than today's computer-drawn squares. Sure, LCD technology (and it's predecessors) depended on straight line segments to render alphanumeric characters, but that is now 20-30 years old. How does a style derived from that look become symbolic of 'high tech'? And while I'm ranting, how about the fact that 'Eurostile/Microgramma', which is apparently the epitome of the Tech-Look, is over 40 years old!

Thanks Mike, I have had your bauhaus page booked marked for some time now. It's nice to see you pop up like that. You actually identified Marten for me a few months ago.

I think that the context has changed enormously these past 10 years for so called tech fonts. They seem to have been appropriated by the youth scene in particular (rave, clubs, parties, dj events, sci-fi tv and movies, etc).
The more established ones like Eurostile and Handel are now widely seen in shops everywhere (even my laudraumat uses Eurostile for signage).

Parallel to that, the real high tech field has changed dramatically during the same period. The desired image of dynamic, young, fun, and hip from the 90's (Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Marimba, ...) has now been changed back to the more conservative image of serious (restrained), professional and efficient.

In that context, I think that its now very tricky to use a "tech" font for a tech company. Bauhaus lines (stemlessness for one) conveys efficiency and modernism to me. The tech side must still be present as a somewhat "square" look, although it must be much more subtle than before. Most important though, the conservative, professional but forward looking image must comes from a well balance (humanist?) body type font with clean lines (sans-serif).
These are the parameters I'm trying to play with.

For reference, I've played with latest suggestions. Here we go...

Infinity, Armada and Prosper are too squarish. They could easily be used for rave ads.
Infinity

Armada

Prosper


Bernhard Gothic shows its age (t and a).


Apex-sans is quite nice, but it's more in the vein of a Mittelschrift. Still, I'm keeping it in my list.


Then we fall into the really similar "Dax" looking fonts.
Flux (a slight bit too round)

Praxis (stems)

and Dax (variable stroke, overused)


I almost feel that Praxis could be modified very slightly to get what I want, although I may change my views after reviewing the fonts listed.
Very interesting thread. Thanks everyone.

How about FF Signa?

Or perhaps Orangutan from House Industries?

House Industries has a 'letter setter'. Here you can see it. I quite like it. I'm a big fan of Christian Schwartz's work.

Hi Morten,
You should mention that to the FontFont people. They do list you as the Designer of FF Max font their web site.
www.fontfont.com/shop

Yes you're right (of course). Signa is rounder overall and with stems. Max is stemless. I must have somehow compared Max with itself.

Heh. Nice rant Mike. You're right about the epitome of
Tech-Look being old faces. Handel Gothic too must be
over 30 years old or what?

What about Infinity, Bernard?