INSIGHT: Designing A. Lange & Söhne – part 3, the tone of type

Typography matters. The choice of font or type is a more complicated matter than merely the arrangement of letters used and the order in which they appear. It’s something designers and branding specialists know only too well: the sub-textual information communicated through the subtle language of serif, weight and kerning. Take the word ‘apple’, for example. Typically, that arrangement of letters evokes the fruit. Capitalise the ‘a’ and write it in Avenir, a font designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988, and the meaning instantly morphs to that of the sleekly designed products of the Cupertino giant. The heaviness of this meaning is exacerbated when text is used as logo: think NASA, Coca-Cola or even Facebook. And so A. Lange & Söhne, written in that characteristic curve, which gently follows the line of a round case – surmounting the words Glashütte I/SA – has multiple meanings. A. Lange & Söhne indicates the brand, and the second line speaks to their home (the I/SA is shorthand for ‘in Sachsen’ or Saxony). Factual, literal stuff, but the font Lange have chosen speaks to their identity, and speaks to it in a very interesting way. A. Lange & Söhne is a brand with a…

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