Karlgeorg Hoefer
German scribe, type designer and unbelievable calligrapher, b. 1914 in Schlesisch-Drehnow, d. 2000 in Offenbach. Following schooling in Schlesien and Hamburg, he served a four-year typesetting apprenticeship from 1930-1934 in Hamburg and later at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Offenbach am Main. From 1939 until 1945 he was in active military service and became a prisoner of the Russians. After that ordeal, he became a calligraphy teacher at the Werkkunstschule in Offenbach, and developed a universal pen with novel writing and drawing techniques for the company Brause. It is at that point that Hoefer started designing types as well. From 1970 to 1979, Hoefer was a lecturer and later professor at the HfG (School of Design) in Offenbach. From 1981 to 1988, Hoefer ran summer calligraphy workshops in the USA (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Washington, and other cities). In 1982, Karlgeorg Hoefer founded a calligraphy workshop in Offenbach for everyone, with evening courses and summer school, and in 1987, the registered association "Calligraphy Workshop Klingspor, Offenbach, Supporters of International Calligraphy." From 1987 to 1995, he was the chairman of the association while teaching continuing courses and summer school classes with leading foreign calligraphers. Hoefer has written two books about calligraphy: "Das alles mit einer Feder" (Brause, 1953) and "Kalligraphie, gestaltete Handschrift" (Econ, 1986). Numerous articles about Hoefer's work have appeared in calligraphy journals in Holland, France, the USA, and Japan. In 1989, the book "Schriftkunst/Letterart Karlgeorg Hoefer" was published as part of Calligraphy-Editions Herbert Maring (Die Kalligraphie Edition, Hardheim, Germany, 1989). For his activities as a calligrapher, Hoefer received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1993. His typefaces: - At Klingspor: Salto (1952), Saltino (1953), Saltarello (1954), Monsun (1954). Salto is a famous and often-copied brush script.
- At D. Stempel: Prima (1957), Zebra (1963-1965, D. Stempel, a script that plays on the simulation of grey and the use of two colors; revived by Colin Kahn in 2007 as P22 Zebra).
- At Ludwig&Mayer: Permanent (1962-1969, a large Grotesk family developed over many years---this was revived by Daylight in 2010 as Permanent Massiv; URW sells Permanent Headline URW D without even a word about the original designer; Softmaker has Plakette Serial and P700 sans; Castcraft has OPTI Permanent and OPTI Pinacle; Marcus Sterz published Letterpress Headline in 2009), Stereo (1963, an outline poster headline script developed between 1957 and 1968; digitally revived in 1993 as Stereo (Tobias Frere-Jones, Font Bureau)), Elegance (1964, a handwriting script, which was the basis for Sincerely (2005, Canada Type)), Big Band (1974, a fat poster script revived in 2007 by Nick Curtis as Baby Cakes NF (2007)), Big Band Terrazzo (1974, a glaz krak face), Headline (1964, a poster typeface that emanated from Permanent).
- Programm-Grotesk (1970): Hoefer's first digital typeface, commissioned by JT Hellas for the Greek telephone books It was first used in the digital machine Digiset of Dr. Ing. Hell in Kiel.
- From 1978 until 1980, Karlgeorg got involved in the development of a German license plate font that could withstand forgery by black marker pens. The typeface, FE Mittelschrift/Engschrift, had also input from other sources.
- Lateinischen Ausgangsschrift (1974): a school script for the Linotype phototypesetter. This led later to VA Schrift (Berthold and Linotype).
- At Linotype: Omnia (1990, a unicase typeface with a Celtic uncial feel), San Marco (1990, round gothic / Rundgotisch), Notre Dame (1991-1993, a full blackletter face), Dominatrix (1994), Sho (1992, an Asian brush script), Beneta (1992, a French bastarda inspired by the Littera beneventana, the script of the Benedictine scribes from the 10th to the 12th century).
Linotype page. FontShop link. View Karlgeorg Hoefer's typefaces.
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