ABC ROM
Dinamo Typefaces · Seb McLauchlan
A grotesque-and-gothic fusion across six widths from Compressed to Extended, drawn from 1960s and 1970s conceptual art catalogue typography.
About
A wide-ranging grotesque by Seb McLauchlan that fuses the rationalised lines of Grotesk styles with the raw details of Gothic ones. ROM takes inspiration from typeface applications in 1960s and 1970s conceptual art catalogues; caps are wide and generous, lowercase narrow and elegant. Six subfamilies flow from Compressed to Extended (plus a Mono cut), each with seven weights and italics, and the O's counter shifts from diamond to rectangle to circle as widths grow. McLauchlan describes drawing it after searching unsuccessfully for a mature, full-weight Franklin Gothic, Bell Gothic or Akzidenz-Grotesk for his own publishing projects.
Classification
Dinamo describe ROM as a sturdy, confident fusion of classic Grotesk and Gothic typeface styles, drawing on conceptual art catalogues from the 1960s and 1970s, with wide and generous caps and narrow elegant lowercase. McLauchlan started from a search for a mature typeface in the spirit of Franklin Gothic, Bell Gothic or Akzidenz-Grotesk.