TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Fri Dec 13 00:48:29 EST 2024

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ErlerSkibbeTönsmann (and: Character Type) [Henning Hartmut Skibbe]

ErlerSkibbeTönsmann is an agency for corporate, editorial and typeface design in Hamburg, Germany. Its main type designer is Henning Hartmut Skibbe, a German communications designer located in Potsdam and/or or Hamburg, b. 1979. He studied graphic design at the University of Applied Science Potsdam and was a typeface design student of Luc(as) de Groot. Some time around 2019, Henning Skibbe set up Character Type and joined The Type Department. Skibbe's typefaces:

• Arctic (2006). A headline font family. Arctic Black Basic is free.
• Haptic (2008): a sans logotype that won an award at TDC2 2009). In 2015, Skibbe followed this up with the connected brush signage family Haptic Script. In 2019, HapticScript and Haptic Pro were rereleased at his own type foundry, Character Type.
• Nautik (2004-2006). A free calligraphic take on Courier. Image by Francisco Baudizzone.
• News Sans (2019). Ninety styles of pure newspaper and information design type.
• Skibfont (2002-2003). A free calligraphic font.
• Codesigner with Johannes Erler in 2009 of FF Dingbats 2.0, a redesign and update of FF Dingbats (1993). This was followed in 2014 by FF Dingbats 2.0 UI and FF Dingbats 2.0 Inverted UI.
• The agency did the typeface design for Sueddeutsche Zeiting in 2011-2012. Its new corporate typeface, SZ (Serif, Sans, Sans Condensed, Text, 40 fonts in all), is described as follows by Henning's codesigner, Nils Thomsen: In 2011 and 2012 I participated on the corporate typeface for the German daily, "Süddeutsche Zeitung", at the office "Bureau ErlerSkibbeToensmann". Hand in hand with type designer Henning Skibbe and art director Christian Tönsmann the different styles and weights were carefully designed. The technical part was edited by fontshop.com. SZ Text is based on Excelsior (Chauncey H. Griffith, 1931). The new typeface got narrower and the capitals smaller and lighter. To this we added lots of new details, which worked better and made it overall more efficient in tight columns and line spacing. SZ Serif is based on SZ Text and replaced the "Times" (Stanley Morison, 1931). Higher contrast and slightly narrower letter shapes makes it more useful for headline typography. SZ Sans is designed for strong headlines and replaces "Helvetica" (Max Miedinger, 1957). Simple and silent shapes gives the right touch to the neutral character of "Süddeutsche Zeitung". SZ Sans Condensed is made for tables in the sport or economy segment. It replaces FF Unit (Erik Spiekermann & Christian Schwartz, 2003-2011).
• In 2019, Skibbe published these four editorial design font families at Character Type: News Sans Compressed, News Sans Condensed, News Sans Extended, News Sans Wide. He writes: The News Sans family was designed to allow for a maximum range of visual shades when creating a typo­graphic look, effortlessly ranging from loud and expressive, to subtle and reserved. The large x-height combined with low as­cenders and descenders allows for tight and efficient designs. All sharp corners were trimmed off to add character and a nuance of extra space. NewsSans' strokes link humanist curves with American Grotesque details and solid square stems. Make no mistake, the w and other glyphs reveal fashionista hipster ideas from the 2010s, thus moving these families a bit away from old school American grotesques. In 2020, at The Type Department, News Sans was released under the new name New Sans (Compressed, Extended). Later in 2020, Skibbe released News Serif (20 styles, three optical sizes).

MyFonts page. Linotype page. FontHaus page. Behance link. URL for Skibbe. Klingspor link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
ErlerSkibbeTönsmann (and: Character Type)
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Fontspring link [Buy fonts]
Monotype link
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Behance page
Klingspor Museum page
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INTERNAL LINKS
Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Calligraphic typefaces ⦿ Sites with only a few free fonts ⦿ German type scene ⦿ Icon fonts ⦿ Courier and derived typefaces ⦿ Corporate typefaces ⦿ Brush script typefaces ⦿ Signage typefaces ⦿