An earlier (1926) constructed alphabet from Jan Tschichold, based on a somewhat finer grid and a slightly less condensed uppercase and a bolder appearance overall.

With a caps-height of 17, reproducing some diagonals proved quickly to be between nightmarish and impossible, thus the fidelity is a bit less exact than my previous recreation.

For a digitisation that encompass both designs and offers proper alternates, you can look at Peter Wiegel’s Tschichold.

My version of Jan Tschichold’s “Schmale Grotesk - Leicht und schnell konstruierbare Schrift” (narrow grotesque - font that is easy and quick to construct), from 1930.

Turns out it isn’t always “quick and easy” to translate a pen and straightedge approach to constructed letters into Fontstruct’s prefabricated bricks setting.

In expanding the glyph coverage, I tried to remain true to the spirit of the original self imposed limitations, both in terms of grid (e.g. the cramped space for the uppercase diacritics), and of tools (see the solution for  superscripts et similia).

The font covers all of Google Fonts Basic set and, given the c-caron present in the source, all of Czech orthography. I may try to add other Eastern European languages in the future.

There are many different takes on the same source (including for the visual identity of a museum), you can look at Serious, here on Fontstruct, or at Iwan Reschniev, for an extensive expansion in weights and typographic features.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome :-)

See also Quick and Easy and New.