City
Credits
- Classification
- Serif, Slab Serif, Geometric Serif
- Original Format
- Metal (Foundry)
- Distributor(s)
- Linotype
- Tags
- 1930s, mechanical, modernist, slab serif, square, squareslab711
Background
City is a slab serif typeface designed by Georg Trump (1896“1985), and released in 1930 by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in Berlin, Germany. Though classified as a slab serif, City displays a strong modernist influence in its geometric structure of right angles and opposing round corners. The typeface takes inspiration from the machine age, and industry. A consistent application of repeated parts: an outer circle softening interior rectilinear spaces, results in a highly unified and refined typeface.
The lowercase a is composed of a two horizontal rectangles in the interior, the outer skin follows the counter but always contrasting the outer stroke with the organic curves. The face was produced in three weights: light, medium, and bold, each in roman and italic. The graphic designer Jan Tschichold helped to popularize the City typeface by his use of it for his book Typographische Gestaltung published by the Basel publishing house Benno Schwabe & Co.
IBM Corporation used variations of City for their corporate logo from 1956 onward1 and used City Medium on the title pages and covers of their technical manuals for several decades.
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