Zvi Narkiss

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Zvi Narkiss Sometimes spelled Zvi Narkis. Well-known Hebrew type designer, b. 1921, d. 2010. He was academic consultant for the graphic design course of the Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, and lectured on Graphic Design and Typography. Freelance designer since 1950 of books, posters, stamps and bank notes. The Narkisim font, developed in the 1950s, became one of the most widespread Hebrew fonts, and has been distributed by Microsoft since ca. 1990. Fonts offered by Masterfont include Narkiss New MF, Narkis Block, Narkisim, Narkis Tam, Narkis Classic MF, Narkis Shulamit, Narkis Gazit, Rutti MF, Tammy, Narkiss Block Mutag MF, Narkiss Textina MF (2008), Narkis Chen MF (1995) and Narkis Chen Sefer MF. Speaker at ATypI in 2001 in Copenhagen. Obituary from which I quote: Narkis was born in Romania in 1921. In 1944 he immigrated to Jerusalem, where he studied painting with Jacob Steinhardt and Mordechai Ardon and then graphics at Bezalel. From 1950 to 1955 he was the chief designer of instructional materials in the Israel Defense Forces and headed the textbook design unit in the air force. In 1955 he opened a graphic design and typography studio, where he worked for more than 50 years designing books, exhibitions, stamps, paper currency, coins, posters and symbols. Among other things he designed two Bibles, for which he created unique typefaces - the Horev Bible and the Hebrew University - Keter Jerusalem Bible. He designed the state of Israel's first tourism poster, the IDF pavilion at the Decade Exhibition (1958), the Victory Medal (1967), the Peace Medal (1977) and several of the Bank of Israel's currency bills. Designer David Tartakover, an Israel Prize laureate for design, says he met Narkis for the first time after completing his studies and was working on the establishment of Israel Television. Narkis was working on creating Israel Television's first symbol. "He was a very special person in his conduct - serious, modest and noble. The modesty was the thing that most stood out with his. He was a man of small gestures," Tartakover said. In 1985 prof. Shimon (Jogol) Sandhaus began working as the designer at the mass-circulation daily newspaper Ma'ariv. Two years later the newspaper came out in a new design, which included a change in the paper's font from FrankRuehl to Narkis. "[He was] the last remnant of the last generation of typeface designers who learned their letters by writing in pen," Sandhaus said. "In contrast to the designers of today, what is interesting in his case is that he very quickly concentrated on designing letters. Designing a font has to take several years, not a month and not one year. I don't know any designer today who concentrates for three years on designing a font." In an interview published in Haaretz (in Hebrew) in 2006 on the occasion of his winning the Emet Prize, Narkis too expressed his regret at the decline of the art of calligraphy and the damage caused to the world of fonts. "For a large number of years now they haven't been teaching calligraphy at Bezalel at all, whereas when I was studying the number of hours of calligraphy was the same as for graphics. I know explicitly that in classes on letter design it has happened that students were told, 'You can take an existing font and change it in your direction.' In this way they only distort other shapes. There has to be prior baggage, because in order to design a worthy letter you have to begin at the beginning." Designer, typographer and typography scholar Yehuda Hofshi, who has been researching and documenting the works of Zvi Narkis, intends to publish a book about his work next year. In a 1985 interview with Simon Prais, he found Latin more interesting than Hebrew and argued that Hebrew latters shopuld be matched in height with Latin ones, but be slightly heavier, and that in nay case one should never try to imitate Latin typography in Hebrew characters. Klingspor link.	EXTERNAL LINKS Zvi Narkiss [Designer info] Monotype link Klingspor Museum page MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Hebrew font links ⦿ Type design in Israel ⦿