Fabrikat Normal is a geometric typeface which is based on 20th century German engineers’ typefaces. It is optimized for small sizes and long texts, but due to its constructed architecture it also works in headlines or display use. You can combine Fabrikat Normal with the more straight and space saving Fabrikat Kompakt or the reduced to the max Fabrikat Mono.
Designed by Christoph Koeberlin, Hannes von Döhren, Inga Plönnigs. Published by HvD Fonts, 2020 | www.hvdfonts.com
Typeface
When we designed the first version of Fabrikat (2016), we created an engineers typeface: Constructed, functional and geometric. Fabrikat was a success and a good choice for designers to create logos, posters and corporate designs. One year later we added Fabrikat Mono to take the approach of simplicity and reduction even further. As more and more people fell in love with the look of Fabrikat, we felt that there is a need for a more “normal” version that can be used as a workhorse for long texts and complex typographic challenges. This new version had to be pushed into a slightly more general typeface, without losing the basic concept. We softened the strong characteristics like the the narrow and vertical architecture of the “original” and added more space to the letterforms – a big step towards legibility in small texts. With the help of Inga Plönnigs we managed to finish this big type project within one year: Hello Fabrikat Normal!
Construction and Readability
A geometric sans O (e.g. in FF Mark) is usually based on a circle and consists only of curves. The architecture of Fabrikat is different: All round characters like “O” “G” or “C” have a straight vertical part in the middle. The goal was a space-saving, constructed typeface without losing the geometric appearance.
As Fabrikat grew to a super family of 42 fonts in an organic way, we decided to take the chance and rename the fonts appropriately to their character: Fabrikat Kompakt (formerly known as Fabrikat), Fabrikat Mono and Fabrikat Normal were born.
