NEUTRAFACE | FONT OF THE WEEK

NEUTRAFACE
Author | Michelle Holder

One of my guilty pleasures and borderline obsessions is typography. It’s the arrangement of text which successfully communicates an idea, a statement or message to the target audience. The art of typography is created by using one or more fonts; fonts are stylized sets of type or letters of one particular weight, face and size — commonly found on computers.

Every week, I will highlight and share some of the best fonts of today. They are from a few of the most familiar font foundries used by creatives. This week, the font of discussion derives from House Industries — entitled Neutraface.

Neutraface mirrors the characteristics of the architectual design of Richard Neutra.

Architect, Richard Neutra (April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970)

THE MAN BEHIND THE “FACE” | RICHARD NEUTRA

Architect, Richard Neutra, is considered one of modernism’s most important architects. Time Magazine featured Neutra on its cover — ranking him second to Frank Lloyd Wright in American architecture. The term “bio-realism'” defined his notion, which was considered an “inherent and inseparable relationship between man and nature.”¹

Richard Neutra believed that architecture should serve as a catalyst for social betterment. He believed that the architect should strive for a response and time that may be only momentary — yet, in its intensity becomes truly memorable.

His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort. Although Neutra was influenced by the architecture, Vienna — which left a sense of prosperity and elegance that was to come — he also came in with an entirely new form of design.

Neutra was born in Vienna in 1892. He immigrated to the United States in 1929. Having developed an appropriate regional architecture in California, he added a fresh new direction and dimension to several regional architectures.

His ideas were distinctly modern — yet, based on the simple post and beam design. The Health House, a house Neutra designed for Dr. P.M. Lovell in 1928, gained him international recognition. It was called the Health House because “the structure was brought into a close relationship with the health factors of nature.”

Neutra’s the Health House (built in 1928)

Interior view of Neutra’s Health House (built in 1928)

He later designed the Desert House for Edgar Kaufmann in 1946. Two years later, he designed the Termain House — both houses built to utilize natural light.

In 1954, Neutra published Survival Through Design; this outlined his attitude towards architectural design.

He said, “Design to contribute to survival of the race is more than design as…a lubrication of bigger and better trade.”

Neutra partnered with his own son in 1965, thus Richard & Dion, and Associates was established.

Projects such as Dion’s Reunion House (1950) and the newly rebuilt VDL Research House (1966) were developed by the firm — both located in the Silverlake community of Los Angeles, California.

To this day, Dion Neutra continues his design practice and serves as the Executive Consultant to The Institute for Survival Through Design.

More of Richard Neutra’s architecture:

Neutra’s the Kaufmann House (built in 1946)

Neutra’s the Yew House (built in 1957)

Interior view of Neutra’s Yew House (built in 1957)

NEUTRAFACE AS TYPE | A Historical Look

House Industries’ Neutraface typeface

Though Richard Neutra is known for his various residential buildings, his commercial projects resonate the same holistic ecology-unity (with the surrounding landscape and uncompromising functionalism)—even down to the very details of each structure.

Even the signage for various structures he’s designed carry characteristics of open and unobtrusive, Neutra specified lettering. House Industries brings the same linear geometry to Neutraface without sacrificing its warm and human feel.²

After consulting with Dion Neutra—and studying the archive photography of Julius Shulman—House Industries created the typeface by adapting sign lettering to typography.

Christian Schwartz created an alphabet which included a complementary lowercase that originally didn’t exist. An alternate font was developed by following certain letter forms that often varied from building to building. The final Neutraface Display family includes five weights in regular and alternate variations—as well as a titling font.³

Initially, the Neutraface font family was originally intended for usage as a display or headline typeface. However, in the same spirit and purpose of the original typeface, a text version of Neutraface was later created. It deviated from the unusual proportions and stylized tone of the display typeface; it had a larger x-height and contrastingly increased in its strokes for readability and legibility for displaying lengthy passages of text.

Neutraface Display Medium typeface

House Industries Neutraface Text Light typeface

NEUTRAFACE | A DESIGNER’S REVIEW

Neutraface gives us a glimpse into how Neutra believed architectural design should be—while toting the characteristics that best describes his works, linear yet warm.

This font is a beautiful typeface. It’s not too neutral (excuse the pun) to the point it has no character at all. This typeface is full of subtle, unique and classic character. Whether all uppercase or lowercase letters are used, there’s an architectural—yet, organic quality that emits from this font. Everything about this font—from the simple angles and curves of each letter to the sharp angles—mirror the very design integrity found in Neutra’s architectural designs.

If you’re a lover of simplistic and clean typography or design in general, this is a font worth buying. I purchased this font from House Industries and fell in love with it ever since. Interested in purchasing this swanky font? You can buy it at www.houseind.com.

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Footnotes:

1-3 Source: House Industries Font Foundry: Neutraface History (http://www.houseind.com/fonts/neutraface/neutrahistory)

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