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Sans Serious I

 This FontStruction was selected by FontStruct staff.This%20FontStruction%20was%20selected%20by%20FontStruct%20staff.

by afrojet
cloned from Sans Serious II by afrojet
see also Sans Serious V by afrojet


Details

Description:
The ‘Sans Serious’ Series is a group of tribute typefaces meant to honor Dutch designer and typographer Jurriaan Schrofer.

Along with Wim Crouwel and Josef Albers, Jurrian Schrofer (1926 - 1990) was among the Bauhaus pioneers of grid-based modular typography and design.

Schrofer's work experimented with type, light, and color and focused on mathematical shapes and pattern.

From the book ‘Dutch Type’ by Jan Middendorp:

“Schrofer made several attempts to create complete typefaces - one of which was wittily called Sans serious - but this was never his goal. ‘Is it necessary’, he wrote, ‘to make complete alphabets with upper- and lowercase, figures, diacritics and seriously adorned with a name, when the aim is merely a formal investigation into basic recipes’ Schrofer's domain was never the design of typographic alphabets, to be used by other designers, but always the creation of letterforms ‘made to measure’ as part of his own designs of - mainly - book covers and postage stamps. He created a rectangular alphabet as the basic element of his ever-changing covers - each based of the same grid but colored differently - for a series of scientific books, ‘Les textes sociologiques’ from Mouton Publishers. He made sophisticated pixel-based letters, all drawn by hand, and experimented with photographic screens as a means of distinguishing simplified letterforms from the background. He created logotypes built from custom-made letterforms, based on rectangular grids.”

“In his booklet ‘Letters op maat’ (‘Type made to measure’, 1987), Schrofer presented many of his experimental alphabets from the 1960s and '70s. The booklet was part of a series of goodwill publications edited by Wim Crouwel for Lecturis Printers, Eindhoven.”

Read more from ‘Dutch Type’.

Image from Letters op matt.

More images of Jurriaan Schrofer's work on Flickr:

Schrofer in Total Design book.

Cover for European Journal of Social Psycology

Museumjournaal, design Jurriaan Schrofer

Die Internationale Avant-Garde

Jurriaan Schrofer - Fodor catalog

Note: for all fonts in the ‘Sans Serious’ Series, the alphabet is the same for upper and lowercase.
Stats:
62 characters, 65 downloads
Created:
Thu, 1st October, 5:50 AM 2009
Last Edit:
Fri, 2nd October, 4:31 PM 2009
Permalink:
http://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/235910
Tags:
Jurriaan Schrofer, Bauhaus, Industrialization, Modular, Simplification, Standardization, Measurability, Visualrhythms, Functionality, Proportion, Monospace
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Discussion

afrojet
afrojet Mon, 26th October, 2009

Frodo7
Frodo7 Mon, 26th October, 2009

Wow! Thank you very much for this introduction. The font is beautiful. The demo pic is a wonderful piece of modern art, I would be happy to hang it above my bed (at Bag End). 10/10

aphoria
aphoria Mon, 26th October, 2009

Great work and great sample. The story behind it is fun to read too.

SimonRobertson
SimonRobertson Tue, 27th October, 2009

sweet. you're amazing.

igorrossi
igorrossi Tue, 27th October, 2009

Great tribute, and even more great sample.

funk_king
funk_king Tue, 27th October, 2009

excellent all the way around. well-executed set. great inspiration. cool background info. another genius sample. and you share your inspiration - i see one i might play with. thanks :)

afrojet
afrojet Tue, 27th October, 2009

Thanks all. I think Schrofer would have had a lot of fun with Fontstruct. I would really like to track down a copy of 'Letters op maat' - some terrific stuff to study there.

@frodo7: Do you think Middle-earth is ready for Modern Art? My sense is that you'd be thrown out of the Shire for hanging such a piece but my knowledge of these things is thin and limited to a couple Led Zeppelin lyrics from 'Ramble On'.

Em42
Em42 Tue, 27th October, 2009

Very informative description, and great sample as usual!

p2pnut
p2pnut Tue, 27th October, 2009

What a package - font, information and sample all terrific. Gets my 10 (shame it doesn't go up to 11).

Re modern art in Bag End ... young master Frodo was ever a forward looking young Hobbit :)

cayo
cayo Sat, 31st October, 2009

What can I add? Great tribute, Awesome Sample, Nice Variations.
Once more, Afrojet, you have come up with something both interesting and inspiring.
Thanks for sharing the information on such a talented typographer. I believe it gives Funk_King a great excuse to not expand his FSions :D

gferreira_admin
gferreira_admin Mon, 2nd November, 2009

Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “Sans Serious I” is now a Top Pick.