Soviet children’s books inspire new typeface

Swiss type foundry Grilli Type has designed a new typeface with Soviet origins, called GT Eesti.

According to Grilli Type, the new typeface is based upon Soviet geometric sans serif Zhurnalnaya Roublennaya, first released in 1947 and designed by Anatoly Schulkin.

The original font was discovered by graphic and type designer Reto Moser when he was shown some Estonian children’s books as a student, after which point he began to digitise the type based on scans from the books. While designing, Grilli Type realised there were two versions of the typeface — “Display” for big sizes and “Text” for smaller sizes — so Reto has incorporated those subtle differences into the final version of the typeface.

As an accompaniment to the typeface, Grilli Type has made a microsite that provides information on the background to the typeface and features brightly coloured graphics to go alongside the font.

Soure: It’s Nice That