TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Mon Apr 15 05:35:54 EDT 2024

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Type-ø-Tones versus FontShop

FontShop's Petra Weitz wrote this to ATypI: A short aside by Erich Alb a few days ago mentioned the fact that FontShop sells a font which Adrian Frutiger considers to be a bad rip-off of one of his typefaces. In the FontBook we have credited the original designer, too. Based on the information supplied by the foundry, Type-ø-Tones of Barcelona, we had no reason to suspect any foul play involved. Here's the copy from Type-ø-Tone's catalogue: Tschicholina and Jeune Adrian are homages to two experimental projects carried out by two of the greatest typographers of all times. Tschicholina was inspired by a project by Jan Tschichold dating from around 1929. It is a *universal* font without distinction between upper and lower cases, and which has always been considered to have very little future; Jeune Adrian is another experiment with the same characteristics, made by the master Adrian Frutiger (everybody stand up!).... For FontShop's own FontFonts, we do make sure that new designs don't conflict with anybody's previous rights, but when it comes to the foundries who license us their fonts for distribution, we have to rely on their information. There have been cases where we thought a "new" font looked like something we'd seen before, and then we went back to the supplier to get the story. In this case, however, we took Type-ø-Tone's word and we are convinced that they naively did not see any harm in it. We will contact Joan Barjau and advise him to contact Adrian Frutiger.

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Type-ø-Tones versus FontShop
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INTERNAL LINKS
David and Goliath ⦿ Type design in Catalunya ⦿ Experimental type ⦿