Metro (typeface) (original) (raw)
Metro is a sans-serif typeface family created by William Addison Dwiggins and released by the American Mergenthaler Linotype Company from 1929 onwards. Metro was Dwiggins's first typeface, which he created at the age of 49 after establishing himself as one of the pre-eminent lettering artists and book designers of the early 20th century. In 1928, Dwiggins wrote Layout in Advertising, in which he criticized the lack of "good" sans-serif types available. Harry L. Gage, assistant director of typography at Linotype, reviewed the book, and in 1929 he offered to hire Dwiggins to design the "good" sans-serif he felt was lacking. Dwiggins was brought in as a consultant and quickly established a rapport with Chauncey H. Griffith, the company's head of type design, who would manage the production of
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| dbo:abstract | Metro is a sans-serif typeface family created by William Addison Dwiggins and released by the American Mergenthaler Linotype Company from 1929 onwards. Metro was Dwiggins's first typeface, which he created at the age of 49 after establishing himself as one of the pre-eminent lettering artists and book designers of the early 20th century. In 1928, Dwiggins wrote Layout in Advertising, in which he criticized the lack of "good" sans-serif types available. Harry L. Gage, assistant director of typography at Linotype, reviewed the book, and in 1929 he offered to hire Dwiggins to design the "good" sans-serif he felt was lacking. Dwiggins was brought in as a consultant and quickly established a rapport with Chauncey H. Griffith, the company's head of type design, who would manage the production of all his typefaces for the rest of his career. Metro was inspired by a wave of new "geometric" sans-serif designs such as Futura, which had attracted attention for their basis on simple geometric shapes like circles and straight lines, rather than on the traditional 'grotesque' style of sans-serifs such as Franklin Gothic. While his opinion of these new designs was less negative, Dwiggins was unsatisfied with the lowercase in existing geometric typefaces and decided to create a font with breaks from pure geometry that could make it more interesting to read. In the midst of the geometric vogue, however, his approach proved less popular than hoped, and the typeface was redesigned several years later to more closely resemble the popular Futura. Several digital revivals in recent years have returned to Dwiggins's original designs or offered them as alternates. (en) |
| dbo:thumbnail | wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/MetroSpecimen.svg?width=300 |
| dbo:wikiPageExternalLink | http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/AA/1930-04-02/edition/null/page/104 http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/AA/1930-07-09/edition/null/page/94 http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/AA/1932-03-01/edition/null/page/3 |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 50200624 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 21525 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1049657529 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbr:Rockwell_Kent dbr:San_Francisco_Chronicle dbr:Sans-serif dbr:Electra_(typeface) dbr:Nib_(pen) dbr:Bauer_Type_Foundry dbr:Bitstream_Inc. dbr:Cyrus_Highsmith dbr:Matthew_Butterick dbr:George_W._Jones_(printer) dbr:Monotype_Imaging dbr:Sans-Serif dbr:Bernhard_Gothic dbc:Typefaces_designed_by_William_Addison_Dwiggins dbr:Small_caps dbr:Stanley_Morison dbr:Streamline_Moderne dbr:Franklin_Gothic dbr:Hot_metal_typesetting dbc:Geometric_sans-serif_typefaces dbr:Tobias_Frere-Jones dbr:Typeface dbr:William_Addison_Dwiggins dbr:Futura_(typeface) dbr:Johnston_(typeface) dbr:American_Type_Founders dbr:Eric_Gill dbr:Font_Bureau dbr:Chauncey_H._Griffith dbr:Dip_pen dbr:Kabel_(typeface) dbr:File:MetroDoubleDuty.png dbr:Legibility_Group dbr:Text_figures dbr:Jim_Parkinson dbc:Linotype_typefaces dbr:Tempo_(typeface) dbr:Matrix_(printing) dbr:Mergenthaler_Linotype_Company dbr:Gill_Sans dbr:Vogue_(typeface) dbr:Stylistic_alternate dbr:File:Metrolite_and_Metroblack.jpg |
| dbp:aka | Geometric 415 (en) |
| dbp:classifications | dbr:Sans-serif |
| dbp:creator | dbr:William_Addison_Dwiggins |
| dbp:foundry | dbr:Mergenthaler_Linotype_Company |
| dbp:name | Metro (en) |
| dbp:releasedate | 1929 (xsd:integer) 1931 (xsd:integer) 1932 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:style | dbr:Sans-Serif |
| dbp:variations | Metro Nova (en) Chronicle Metro (en) Metro Office (en) |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Reflist dbt:Infobox_font |
| dct:subject | dbc:Typefaces_designed_by_William_Addison_Dwiggins dbc:Geometric_sans-serif_typefaces dbc:Linotype_typefaces |
| rdfs:comment | Metro is a sans-serif typeface family created by William Addison Dwiggins and released by the American Mergenthaler Linotype Company from 1929 onwards. Metro was Dwiggins's first typeface, which he created at the age of 49 after establishing himself as one of the pre-eminent lettering artists and book designers of the early 20th century. In 1928, Dwiggins wrote Layout in Advertising, in which he criticized the lack of "good" sans-serif types available. Harry L. Gage, assistant director of typography at Linotype, reviewed the book, and in 1929 he offered to hire Dwiggins to design the "good" sans-serif he felt was lacking. Dwiggins was brought in as a consultant and quickly established a rapport with Chauncey H. Griffith, the company's head of type design, who would manage the production of (en) |
| rdfs:label | Metro (typeface) (en) |
| owl:sameAs | yago-res:Metro (typeface) wikidata:Metro (typeface) https://global.dbpedia.org/id/2PAnV |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:Metro_(typeface)?oldid=1049657529&ns=0 |
| foaf:depiction | wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Metrolite_and_Metroblack.jpg wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/MetroDoubleDuty.png wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/MetroSpecimen.svg |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:Metro_(typeface) |
| is dbo:wikiPageDisambiguates of | dbr:Metro |
| is dbo:wikiPageRedirects of | dbr:Metro_LT dbr:Metro_Nova dbr:Metroblack |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:Sans-serif dbr:Electra_(typeface) dbr:Metro dbr:Matthew_Butterick dbr:William_Addison_Dwiggins dbr:Futura_(typeface) dbr:Kabel_(typeface) dbr:Legibility_Group dbr:Jim_Parkinson dbr:Albertus_(typeface) dbr:Thesis_(typeface) dbr:Metro_LT dbr:Metro_Nova dbr:Metroblack dbr:Matrix_(printing) dbr:Toronto_Subway_(typeface) dbr:List_of_typefaces_designed_by_Tobias_Frere-Jones dbr:Gill_Sans |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:Metro_(typeface) |
