KLINGSPOR INSTITUTE FOR TYPE DESIGN

The city of Offenbach has a rich history of type design: as early as the early 20th century, the Klingspor type foundry commissioned renowned artists such as Rudolf Koch and Peter Behrens to design new typeface families. At the same time, the Kunstgewerbeschule (now the University of Art and Design Offenbach) was producing many remarkable works of typography.

With this in mind, we founded the Klingspor Institute for Type Design in 2017 together with Marc Schütz. The institute is a collaboration between HfG Offenbach and the Klingspor Museum, which has its origins in the former foundry. The institute's goal is to research the city's historical typographic heritage – specifically the archives of the Klingspor foundry – and to make them more visible and accessible. In addition to archival research and the digitization of the collection, the institute regularly organized courses, workshops, and lectures for HfG students.

The corporate typeface we designed for the institute references the connection between historical material and contemporary type design. It is inspired by the »Offenbach« typeface, a hybrid font designed by Rudolf Koch for the Klingspor type foundry in the late 1920s. Starting from the original capital letter forms, we expanded the character set, transforming all curves into polygonal segments. Through this look, which is inspired by low-resolution screen previews, we make reference to the digital materiality of the new typeface. Like the institute as a whole, the design combines historical material with a digital approach.

Self-initiated project
Year: 2018

The historical photos of the »Offenbach« were taken from the archives of the Klingspor Museum and can be found in the 0 Klingspor Type Archive.
The photo of Laura and Leonie was taken by Marc Schütz.