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Mies van der Rohe font?
Posted by Laura Marmash in
21 Sep 2009 — 10:40am
21 Sep 2009 — 10:40am
Hi all,
Did Mies van der Rohe design a font?
If so, what is it?
Thanks,
L
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21 Sep 2009 — 11:39am
Not that I know of but the typical array of modernist fonts designed by others are used in association with his work.
I don't know if this exactly qualifies but he did design signage for the Toronto-Dominion Centre. Wickipedia states: "Even signage graphics were restricted to only white backlit letters within a black aluminum panel, and only in the specific font that Mies had designed for the T-D Centre.
ChrisL
21 Sep 2009 — 12:25pm
I can't remember seeing a van der Rohe typefaces, but I can remember seeing some faces in the De Stijl journals - Theo van Doesberg. Kinda similar philosophies.
Obviously, the Bauhaus works incorporate those ideals. Might be a place to start. and as the learned gentleman above says, building signage is a good place to look for an architects type discipline.
Personally, I think van de Rohe would have been a fan of Futura.
21 Sep 2009 — 12:34pm
Just found this in a Bauhaus book, it's dated after de Rohes arrival there:
21 Sep 2009 — 4:16pm
I don’t think he designed type, but if he were alive today he would be using Helvetica Black Condensed over and over to match those hideous black office buildings he “designed” over and over.
21 Sep 2009 — 4:27pm
O rly?
21 Sep 2009 — 5:04pm
Thanks for the helpful comments, everyone!
21 Sep 2009 — 6:11pm
Chris, Hmm I'll have to take another walk though the TD centre...
I'd bet place has been re-habed a zillion times since it went up, so who knows if opriginal signs still exist, but I'll post some pics.
-=®=-
21 Sep 2009 — 9:41pm
Thanks, Russell!
James,
Have you ever really seen his? His work is spectacular. The wannabe's stuff is the usual copycat crap.
ChrisL
23 Sep 2009 — 4:37am
I've never heard of a Mies Van Der Rohe typeface. Richard Neutra was heavily influenced by Mies and thus surely the gorgeous Neutraface.
As for Helv. Black Condensed... I picture Ludwig as being more of an Akzidenz kind of guy.
23 Sep 2009 — 5:24am
Maybe his handwriting has been digitized. Looked great on his designs.
. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO
23 Sep 2009 — 6:43am
I found this in MIT Bauhaus book
23 Sep 2009 — 10:56am
That is Futura.
. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO
23 Sep 2009 — 5:57pm
signage at the TD Centre in Torotno
most of these are clearly original. More recent signs do respect the original specs.
The street number signs were (I'd bet money) added quite recently in compliance with a city by-law.
-=®=-
23 Sep 2009 — 10:52pm
Thanks, Russel, for the detective work and sharing your photos with us.
The centered style seems a bit un-Mies like to me--or at least not what I would have expected
"The street number signs were (I’d bet money) added quite recently in compliance with a city by-law."
In Copperplate?
ChrisL
24 Sep 2009 — 12:54am
Whatever happened to the spacing in "A CCESS" and "E S CA LAT O R"? Or alignment of the second "C" in "CONCOURSE?
24 Sep 2009 — 6:28am
… Copperplate?
yeah, go figure.
A CCESS could be a retrofit — Was the term even used to refer to an accessible route in 1968?. Wasn't it more like, "huh? what's an 'accessible route?'"
Actually, did the AIGA/DOT standard pictogram of the wheelchair even exist before the late '70s or early '80s.
-=®=-
24 Sep 2009 — 9:18am
"Actually, did the AIGA/DOT standard pictogram of the wheelchair even exist before the late ’70s or early ’80s."
I think it began in the '60s, perhaps the big Expo in Toronto in 1967?
ChrisL
24 Sep 2009 — 12:25pm
FWIW, this is outdoor signage at his wonderful Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin).
25 Sep 2009 — 10:22pm
so Uh, what's the font?
-=®=-
10 Oct 2009 — 3:17pm
Chester Jenkins at Village designed a typeface based on van der Rohe's lettering for a book project by Michael Bierut. Check out pages 12 through 14 in this PDF.