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Aldo Novarese

Italian designer, 1920-1995, who designed most of his typefaces at Nebiolo in Turin. Until 1975, he made about 30 families at Nebiolo, and after 1975, he produced about 70 further families of fonts. With weights included, he created about 300 fonts. Biography by Sergio Polano. He was very influential, and wrote two important books, Alfa Beta: Lo Studio e il Disegno del Carattere, a study on font design and history (1964), and Il Segno Alfabetico (1971). Essay by Sergio Polano on Novarese. The list of fonts done at Nebiolo:

• Landi Linear (1942). This was revived in digital form in 2011 by Toto as K22 Landi Linear.
• Etruria (1940-42)
• Express (1940-43)
• Normandia (1946-49, with Butti, and 1952)
• Athenaeum Initials (with A. Butti, 1945-1947)
• Fluidum (+Bold) (1951, script). Revived by Ralph Unger as Butti (2011).
• Fontanesi (1951-54, an all caps rococo font). Digital revivals include Fontanesi RMU (2018, Ralph M. Unger) and Fontanesi (2003, a free font by Frogii).
• Microgramma (1952, with A. Butti; available at URW++). This was done as an alternative to Bank Gothic, and is identical to Eurostile Bold Extended.
• Nova Augustea (1951, ITC Augustea Open)
• Egizio (1953-57), a slab serif [see E710 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002, or Egizio URW (2009, quite complete family with 5 styles) or Egizio EF (2001), or Thierry Gouttenègre's Aldogizio (2013)]. For a specimen, see here.
• Cigno (1954). This script typeface was revived an extended as P22 Cigno (2008, Colin Kahn, P22).
• Swan (1954), aka Cigogna (with A. Butti).
• Juliet (1954-55). For a superb revival and extension of this copperplate script, see Canada Type's Ambassador Script (2007).
• Ritmo (1955)
• Rhythm (1955)
• Garaldus (1956-ff). A garalde digitally revived in 2012 as Garaldus by Flanker.
• Slogan (1957). Digital revival by Terry Wudenbachs in 2010 called P22 Slogan.
• Recta (1958-1961). This is a large sans family. Canada Type published an 18-font revival in 2011, also called Recta.
• Estro (1961). A western font now found in the Mecanorma collection.
• Fancy (1961)
• Exempla (1961). Published by VGC in 1966. Third Prize in the 1966 VGC National Type Face Design Competition.
• The Eurostile family (1952: caps, with Alessandro Butti; 1962: lower case). This is carried by many foundries such as Adobe, Linotype, and URW++. Eurostile lookalikes include Aldostile (Autologic), ES (Itek), Eurasia (SoftMaker), Eurogothic, Eurostar (MGI Software), Eurostile, Eurostile Next (Akira Kobayashi), Gamma, Jura (Daniel Johnson), Microgramma, MicroSquare (SoftMaker), Microstyle (Compugraphic), NuevoSolStile (Cayo Navarro), SD Eurostile Elite (Justin Rotkowitz), Square 721 (Bitstream), Waltham. Noteworthy is Eurostile Round (2014), a rounded version of Eurostile by URW++.
• Patrizia
• Magister (1966)
• Forma (1966). Alessandro Colizzi explains: From 1965, following a marketing-oriented approach focused on the user, the management set a research group of graphic designers to work on a new typeface design. Headed by Novarese, who provided the basic alphabet, the team included Franco Grignani, Giancarlo Iliprandi, Till Neuburg, Ilio Negri, Pino Tovaglia, Luigi Oriani, and Bruno Munari. The collective design process was based on an analysis of contemporary sanserif typefaces and legibility tests, to develop a more mature, humane interpretation of the Swiss sanserif trend. The process was quite laborious with monthly meetings spanning across over two years. In 1968, Forma was eventually released as lead type. As its name implies, Forma aimed at representing the ideal letterform of its time, equally appealing to designers, printers and the general public. The typeface was favourably received by the design community (it won a special mention at Compasso d'oro in 1970), but although initial sales were encouraging, it could not really compete in a market already saturated by Univers, Helvetica and the like. . A grand revival of Forma, described by Indra Kupferschmdt, was organized by Roger Black for Hong Kong Tatler (as fashion mag). The revival was executed by Font Bureau's David Jonathan Ross in 2013. See David Jonathan Ross's site.
• Oscar (1966)
• Lambert (Compacta lookalike)
• Metropol (1967). This gaspipe typeface was digitized by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type in 2007 as Press Gothic. Originally, it was meant as an alternative to Geoffrey Lee's Impact at Stephenson Blake.
• Elite (1968, a boring linear script, digitized in 2005 by Canada Type as Fontella)
• Fenice
• Stop (1971; available at Mecanorma, Linotype, URW++, Elsner&Flake)
• Dattilo (1974, an Egyptian face) (1974): his last creature for Nebiolo, a typewriter type. It was considered as a slab serif companion of Forma. This typeface was revived as a variable font in 2020 by David Jonathan Ross.

• Primate (1972), for AG Berthold. For a digital revival of this wedge serif, see Luca Terzo's Noctis (2020).
• Sintex 1 (VGC, 1973). A revival and expansion of this funky nightclub typeface was done in 2008 by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type as Stretto (2008).
• Sprint (1974). A script typeface. Digital versons: Sprint (Linotype), Sprint (2019, SoftMaker).
• Bloc (1974, VGC)
• Mixage (1977 Haas, a lineal font, now ITC Mixage) 1985?
• Novarese Book (1978, now ITC Novarese Book)
• Lapidar (1977)
• Andromeda (1978, VGC)
• Global (1978, VGC)
• Fenice (1977-80; now ITC Fenice)
• Expert or Expert Haas (1982-1983). At Haas'sche Typefoundry.
• Floreal Haas (1983). A decorative and slightly wavy serif published by Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei.
• Colossal (1984); see Colossalis at Berthold, a slab serif sports lettering family)
• Stadio (1974). A reverse contrast sans that was published only as a rub-on transfer typeface. Revived in 2020 by the Zetafonts team as Stadio Now.
• Symbol (1982-1984, now ITC Symbol)
• Arbiter (1989, Berthold)

View Aldo Novarese's typefaces.

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Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type design in Italy ⦿ Athletic lettering faces ⦿ Books on type design ⦿ Photo and film type era ⦿ Typewriter fonts ⦿ Copperplate ⦿ Neon tube or faux neon typefaces ⦿ Western fonts ⦿ Gaspipe fonts ⦿