FF DIN
Alternate Regular
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You need JavaScript enabled and the latest version of Flash Player to see this type sample.Credits
- Designer(s)
- Albert-Jan Pool, Johannes Erler, Achaz Reuss
- Foundry(ies)
- FontFont
- Release Year
- 1995
- Country of Origin
- Germany
- Classification
- Sans Serif, Grotesque
- Original Format
- Digital
- Distributor(s)
- FontShop
- Tags
- highway, sans serif, signage, vernacular
Background
In 1994, in San Francisco, Albert-Jan Pool and Erik Spiekermann took a cab together from the ATypI conference to the airport. Spiekermann knew that Pool’s employer went bust, so he told him that if he wanted to earn some money with type design, he should have a look at fonts such as OCR and DIN. At the same time, he invited Pool to Berlin to discuss the idea in detail. One year later, FontFont published Pool’s typeface FF OCR-F, followed by the family FF DIN. Spiekermann had the skill to point out an empty space in the market. Digital DIN fonts were available at that time, however, only in two weights and solely in pure geometric shape. Pool designed a family of five weights, he added true italics and also some alternative characters, such as the “i” with a round dot and the lower case figures. With time, five weights of DIN Condensed were added, as well as Greek and Cyrillic versions. The shape of the new FF DIN differs from the original mostly by thinner horizontal strokes and by more fluent curves. Despite its primitive, technical look and the clear reference to the German motorway signboards, FF DIN became a phenomenon. The typeface has even pervaded book and magazine typography, and it found its place in posters of cultural institutions. With this in mind, Czech design magazine TYPO asked Albert-Jan Pool for an interview about FF DIN when they met him at the Typo Berlin conference in 2005.
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