Typeface Geometrico. Round without Compromises.

Geometrico
Round without Compromises.

# Geometric

# Reinvented
Typefaces
Reflections
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How coura­geous and inno­v­a­tive were Paul Ren­ner and Herb Lubalin with their font designs! In com­par­i­son, today’s Swiss font design scene can be described as flat­ten­ing out. More or less “accu­rate” vari­ants of the Hel­vetica font are being “warmed up” more and more. We do not appre­ci­ate this devel­op­ment and are offer­ing here con­sciously type­faces that you wouldn’t nec­es­sar­ily expect under the term “Swiss Design”.

For the 90th anniver­sary of the type­face “Futura”, Geometrico was designed: a new inter­pre­ta­tion of the Bauhaus clas­sic and a trib­ute to Paul Ren­ner. “How many cir­cu­lar ele­ments can be used in a type­face?”, asked him­self the author. “Futura” con­tains already 13 cir­cu­lar ele­ments in the minus­cules only, the new font fam­ily Geometrico 15. Does the read­abil­ity suf­fer?

Beyond Type: Thoughts on Typography, Design and Our Philosophy

Is Times New Roman better than Calibri?

You might have won­dered why the Trump admin­is­tra­tion recently decided to revert to Times New Roman for offi­cial documents—replacing the sans-serif Cal­ibri used under the Biden admin­is­tra­tion. The trig­ger may have been admin­is­tra­tive, but the impact is cul­tural.

«Type is not neutral.»

The Amer­i­can pres­i­dent rec­og­nized it this time: type is more than just a car­rier of infor­ma­tion. It con­veys val­ues, tone, and atti­tude. A sans-serif font com­mu­ni­cates func­tion, moder­nity, and effi­ciency. In con­trast, a serif font stands for tra­di­tion, con­ti­nu­ity, and insti­tu­tional her­itage. Her­itage instead of update.

«Form follows attitude.»

The return to Times thus means more than just a styl­is­tic cor­rec­tion. It is a con­sciously cho­sen signal—even though Times New Roman is merely a sys­tem font: nei­ther typo­graph­i­cally out­stand­ing nor par­tic­u­larly orig­i­nal.

This shows what a care­fully cho­sen font can achieve, even when it is visu­ally unre­mark­able.

Any­one who claims that font choice does not mat­ter in com­mu­ni­ca­tion either has never looked closely—or never under­stood how power speaks visu­ally.

«Type is the silent voice of a page.»

Nei­ther Times New Roman nor Cal­ibri is “bet­ter”. Both are mediocre sys­tem fonts that serve dif­fer­ent pur­poses. Which type­face is appro­pri­ate depends on the con­text and the intended effect.

Between con­ti­nu­ity and moder­nity, there is also a zone of typo­graphic medi­a­tion. The Sintesi super­fam­ily, for exam­ple, is posi­tioned pre­cisely between sans and serif: Sintesi, Sintesi Semi, and Sintesi Sans.

Fur­ther thoughts on typog­ra­phy and design:

What if readability is not the primary goal of typography?

Some­times we won­der if read­abil­ity really has to be the cen­ter of every­thing… We are con­tin­u­ally amazed at how tire­lessly the topic of “read­abil­ity” is debated within pro­fes­sional cir­cles. This fix­a­tion often leaves us feel­ing puz­zled. We would – fol­low­ing Erik Spiek­er­mann – rather say: “The dif­fer­ences in read­abil­ity between the most com­mon type­faces are min­i­mal” – the rest feels like typo­graphic white noise.
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How can you save money with fonts?

Some­times it feels as though many com­pa­nies under­es­ti­mate how much a sin­gle well-cho­sen type­face can actu­ally accom­plish… We keep encoun­ter­ing the same, almost coun­ter­in­tu­itive insight: a com­mer­cial type­face is one of the most afford­able and at the same time most effec­tive tools for devel­op­ing an inde­pen­dent cor­po­rate design. It cre­ates two cen­tral pil­lars of a visual sys­tem: the brand’s design auton­omy through a con­sis­tent type fam­ily — and a logo design that derives directly from the let­ter­forms them­selves.
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Which typeface is best for readability?

I keep ask­ing myself whether it even makes sense to search for the “best” type­face for read­abil­ity. In expert cir­cles, peo­ple love to debate “bet­ter” or “worse” read­abil­ity, but with­out solid empir­i­cal evi­dence most claims remain spec­u­la­tive. Seri­ous stud­ies? Hardly any. And among widely used type­faces – espe­cially sans ser­ifs – the dif­fer­ences in real-world read­ing com­fort are min­i­mal.
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Where can I find beautiful fonts?

There are count­less font offers on the inter­net — rang­ing from high-qual­ity to rather ques­tion­able ones. We gen­er­ally advise against using free fonts, as there’s a risk that they’re also being used by count­less oth­ers — per­haps even by the kebab shop around the cor­ner — which can harm a brand’s image.
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How Do I Avoid a “Wall of Text”?

Is an image really always needed to build ten­sion? This ques­tion repeat­edly comes to mind when a neatly set block of text is hastily labeled as “too dense”—as if typo­graphic design could not exist with­out visual props. Visual relief is not cre­ated solely through dec­o­ra­tion, but pri­mar­ily through pre­cise han­dling of white space, con­trast ratios, and tar­geted asym­me­try within the design grid.
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