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ABOUT

Adolf Overbeek

Designer (1905-1969) of Studio (1946, an almost-brush-script typeface at the Lettergieterij Amsterdam). The bold version is called Flambard and was, according to some sources, made by Dick Dooijes in 1954 (but the 1963 Tetterode specimen book points to Overbeek as Flambard's designer, and mentions in addition the date 1953). Some write Overbeek's name incorrectly as Overbeck. Jan Middendorp writes: Dolf Overbeek was the head of the studio of the Vada printing firm, and around 1948 became the graphic adviser to De Arbeiderspers, a major Dutch publishing and printing house. Overbeek was an authoritative and demanding taskmaster, as well as the designer of prize-winning books and calendars. He was not fond of experiments and preferred conventional no-nonsense typography to fancy modernisms. Annoyed by bad typeface combinations, he analysed the compatibility of typefaces of different categories and designed the Letterorgel (Letter Organ, after the musical instrument a kind of scientific table) which prescribed exactly which combinations to use, and which to avoid.

His Studio and Flambard typefaces were revived in 2008 by Hans van Maanen as Adams (Canada Type). SoftMaker's versions of Studio (1946, Lettergieterij Amsterdam) are called S850 Station Script (2019). Mecanorma also has a version. Finally, there is a pirated version of Flambard from 1998, called Studio Bold. See also OPTI Bold (by Castcraft).

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