Category | Sans-serif |
---|---|
Classification | Geometric |
Designer(s) | Aldo Novarese |
Foundry | Nebiolo |
Date released | 1962 |
Re-issuing foundries | Linotype URW Monotype Imaging |
Design based on | Microgramma |
Variations | Microgramma Microstyle Square 721 |
Eurostile is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Aldo Novarese in 1962. Novarese created Eurostile for one of the best-known Italian foundries, Nebiolo, in Turin.
Novarese developed Eurostile to succeed the similar Microgramma, which he had helped design. Microgramma was a titling font with only uppercase letters, which came with a variety of weights. A decade after Microgramma, Novarese resolved this limitation with his design of Eurostile, which added lowercase letters, a bold condensed variant, and an ultra narrow design he called Eurostile Compact, for a total of seven fonts.
Eurostile is a popular font, particularly suitable for headings and signs. Its linear nature suggests modern architecture, with an appeal both technical and functional. The squarish shapes with their rounded corners evoke the appearance of television screens of the 1950s and 1960s. It is particularly popular in science fiction artwork and media set or produced in the 1960s and '70s, alongside other graphic design use. Eurostile and its antecedent Microgramma had a near-monopoly on science fiction typefaces through the end of the 20th century, before Ray Larabie, seeing an opening in the market, began designing more modern computer fonts for the genre and distributed them through freeware.[1]