LL Medium
Lineto · Robert · 2013
A five-weight grotesque revived from a Bauer & Co. specimen of the early 1880s, capturing the rawness of pre-Akzidenz sans-serif design.
About
Originally developed for Bahrain's contribution to the 2013 Venice Architecture Biennial under the name RH Inter, the family has since grown from a single cut to five weights. Its letterforms sit at an awkward, transitional moment in type history, before grotesques had settled into the balance that would define Akzidenz Grotesk, giving them a blunter, more literal strangeness. American precursors from the 1860s, including White & Co.'s Grotesk Nr.1, were later found to share close similarities with the source material.
Classification
Rooted in a late-19th century South German sans-serif specimen from Bauer & Co., predating Akzidenz Grotesk, placing it firmly in the early grotesque tradition with archaic, unconventional letterforms.