NN Rektorat is a type family based on historical letterings originally created in 1933. It was then used for the signage of the modernist building in which the ‘Kunstgewerbeschule’ (today named as ZHdK) and the ‘Museum für Gestaltung’ moved into, the latter is domicilated there since 85 years. During a renovation of said building in 2001, the original letterings were discovered hidden behind some wallpaper. With students, Rudolf Barmettler traced parts of the characters, refining and fully redrawing them in ink. The intention was to create a typeface which could be applied for use as descriptive terms within the building itself, for example ‘WC Damen’, ‘Kein Durchgang’, ‘Rauchen untersagt’. In 2002, while teaching at the F+F Design School, Barmettler, together with his students, created additional weights. Reinhard Haus then helped to digitise the drawings and extend the fonts using ‘Fontographer’. The objective was to create a family. Unfortunately however, this was never realised. Since 2014 Rudolf Barmettler and Anton Studer have reworked the entire concept and every detail of the typeface to make it more than just another historical remake. The current family consists of 14 cuts which are the first part of an ever-growing superfamily.
Design: Prof. Rudolf Barmettler, Anton Studer
Release: 2018
Mastering: Christoph Koeberlin
Foundry: Nouvelle Noire Type Foundry
