Monotype Grotesque

Category	Sans-serif
Classification	Realist sans-serif
Designer(s)	Frank Hinman Pierpont
Foundry	Monotype Corporation
Date released	1926
Re-issuing foundries	Stephenson Blake, Adobe Type, Linotype

Monotype Grotesque is a family of sans-serif typefaces released by the Monotype foundry; some designs in the family were created by Frank Hinman Pierpont (1860–1937) in or around 1926. It belongs to the grotesque or realist genre of early sans-serif designs.

History and design

Monotype Grotesque is a large family of fonts, including very bold, condensed and extended designs, created at different times. Monotype offered some sans-serifs from early in its history; others were developed later. Like many early sans-serif designs, it is strongly irregular, with designs created at different times that are adapted to suit each width and style at the expense of consistency.^[1][2][3] Monotype executive Dan Rhatigan has commented that it "was never really conceived as a family in the first place, so consistency wasn't a goal."^[4]

The German families 'Venus' (by Bauer) and 'Ideal', from the H. Berthold AG foundry have been described as inspirations for some styles of Monotype Grotesque; its name descends from William Thorowgood's 1832 face titled "Grotesque."^[5][6] Uppercase characters are of near equal width, the G has a spur in some weights, and the M in the non-condensed weights is square. The 'a' is double storey. Some fonts have a single-storey 'g' and others double-storey.

Monotype Grotesque was somewhat overshadowed during the period immediately after its release, due to the arrival of Futura and Gill Sans, also by Monotype. With their cleaner, more constructed and geometric appearance, these designs came to define graphic design of the 1930s, especially in Britain and parts of Europe. (Pierpont was irritated by Monotype advisor Stanley Morison's enthusiasm for marketing Gill Sans, saying that he could "see nothing in this design to recommend it and much that is objectionable."^[7]) However, while it never achieved the popularity of Akzidenz Grotesk, it remained a steady seller through the twentieth century. A particular revival of interest took place after the war, and it is often found in avant-garde printing of this period from western and central Europe, such as the journal Typographica designed by Herbert Spencer.^[5]

With the rise of popularity of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces such as Helvetica in the 1950s, which featured a more homogeneous design across a range of styles, Monotype attempted to redesign Monotype Grotesque around 1956 under the name of 'New Grotesque' in a more contemporary style after Pierpont's death in 1937. The project proved abortive (Monotype's obituary of Morison described him as having agreed to it 'without any great enthusiasm'), and did not progress beyond the release of some alternative characters.^[8][9][10] Monotype ultimately came to licence Univers, Adrian Frutiger's extremely comprehensive new family, from Deberny & Peignot.^[11] Historian James Mosley has commented that "orders unexpectedly revived" for it around 1960, partly as Univers was only slowly made available on the popular Monotype system, "or maybe they did not want to use the rather bland Univers anyway."^[12][6] Mosley wrote in 1999 that the interest in its eccentric design "represents, even more evocatively than Univers, the fresh revolutionary breeze that began to blow through typography in the early sixties," and that "its rather clumsy design seems to have been one of the chief attractions to iconoclastic designers tired of the...prettiness of Gill Sans".^[12][6]

Monotype would later use aspects of Monotype Grotesque and New Grotesque as an inspiration for Arial, a new design styled to generally be very similar to Helvetica.^[13][14]

Metal type weights

Monotype Grotesque formed a sprawling family with a range of weights sold at different times. The following is a list of known series numbers and their state in post-war specimens.^[15]

• Regular, series 215 with italic, single-storey ‘g’.^[16][17]
• Bold, series 216 with italic, single-storey ‘g’.^[18][19]
• Bold, series 73, different design with a non-strikethrough 'Q'.^[20]
• Light, series 126 with italic, single-storey ‘g’.^[21][22]
• Medium, series 51, with the ‘g’ double-storey. Not digitised in the "Monotype Grotesque" releases.^[23][24]
• Condensed, series 33, a medium weight with a single-storey ‘g’. Stephen Coles comments that this series is "really two different typefaces. Note sizes below 14pt are very different than Large Composition and Display Matrices which are essentially Alternate Gothic No. 3. Neither are part of the digital version of Monotype Grotesque.”^[25][26]
• Condensed, series 318, more condensed than the above, a medium weight with a single-storey ‘g’.^[27][28]
• Condensed or Extra Condensed, series 383, even more condensed, a medium weight with a single-storey ‘g’ and no vertical spur on the 'G'.^[29][30]
• Bold Condensed, series 15 with italic, double-storey ‘g’.^[31] Very similar to "Headline Bold" (below) but different 't' and 'r'.
• Bold Condensed, series 81, double-storey 'g'.^[32]
• Bold Extended, series 150 with italic, double story ‘g’, single-storey 'g' and 'a' in italic.^[33][34]
• Light Condensed, series 274, single-storey 'g'.^[35]

Titling weights (capitals only):

• Condensed Titling, series 523, condensed, reversed-z ampersand.^[36]
• Bold Titling, series 524.^[37]
• Bold Condensed Titling, series 527, reversed-z ampersand, strikethrough 'Q'.^[38]
• Bold Condensed titling, series 166, more condensed than series 15, reversed-z ampersand, non-strikethrough 'Q'.^[39][15]

Monotype also sold a few other general-purpose sans-serifs, listed her for convenience:

• Headline Bold and Italic, series 595, a clone of Stephenson Blake’s popular Grotesque No. 9. Flat-topped 't' and droop on the 'r'.^[40]
• Placard, a geometric sans-serifs, with weights:

• Bold Condensed, series 506.^[15]
• Bold Condensed, series 515, different proportions.^[15]
• Condensed, series 568, lighter.^[15]
• Light Extra Condensed, series 505.^[15]

Digital releases

Monotype Grotesque

A release of light and regular styles (with italics), bold and black, light and standard condensed, regular extra-condensed and bold extended weights. This set is also sold by Adobe.

Monotype Grotesque Display

A variant with altered designs. The family consists of Bold Condensed and Bold Extended fonts. Digital version was sold by Linotype.

Classic Grotesque

A less eccentric updating designed by Rod McDonald. The design combines the features in Venus and Ideal Grotesk font families. Alternate characters are also added.^[41][42] The development was originally approved in 2008, and lasted four years.^[43][44]

The font family originally includes 14 fonts in 7 weights, with a complementary italic. OpenType features include numerators/denominators, fractions, ligatures, lining/old style/proportional and tabular figures, superscript, small capitals, stylistic alternates, stylistic sets 1 and 2 (Roman fonts only). Only one width is offered, without condensed or extended designs.

OpenType Pro version supports all western European, most central European and many eastern European languages.

Condensed, Compressed and Expanded widths were added in 2016, increasing the family to 56 fonts.^[45]

References

• Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
• Jaspert, Berry and Johnson. Encyclopaedia of Type Faces. Cassell Paperback, London; 2001. ISBN 1-84188-139-2
• Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

External links

• Monotype Imaging web page for Monotype Grotesque
• Adobe Monotype Grotesque Std: 1, 2
• Monotype Grotesque Font Family - by Monotype Design Studio
• Monotype typefaces
• Monotype System

Classic Grotesque

• Monotype Imaging page
• Classic Grotesque font family - Designed by Rod McDonald in 2012