Proto

Subfamilies

The Magic and Melancholy of Dungeons & Dragons The Magic and Melancholy of Dungeons & Dragons The Magic and Melancholy of Dungeons & Dragons The Magic and Melancholy of Dungeons & Dragons

Styles

Fast driving by Jack, with the zippy Mazda, quickly excels on the rugged course.

Proto Grotesk ExtraLight

Buy from €70

Fast driving by Jack, with the zippy Mazda, quickly excels on the rugged course.

Proto Grotesk Light

Buy from €70

Fast driving by Jack, with the zippy Mazda, quickly excels on the rugged course.

Proto Grotesk Regular

Buy from €70

Fast driving by Jack, with the zippy Mazda, quickly excels on the rugged course.

Proto Grotesk Bold

Buy from €70

Proto In Use

Founded in 1981, Edition Moderne is the oldest independent comic publisher in the German-speaking world and the only one in German-speaking Switzerland. In 2019, graphic designers Julia Marti and Claudio Barandun took over the baton, and introduced a new visual identity. The logotype is set in Proto Grotesk. This “beast” (André Mora) by Production Type also serves as one of the two typefaces in the wider identity. It’s used for the website, the biannual previews in newspaper format (photos by Anne Morgenstern), and other materials. There it takes turns with Livory AS. The first serif designed by Aurèle Sack of LL Brown fame, it was released in 2023 with Lineto as LL Ivory. For the design of Proto Grotesk, Jean-Baptiste Levée found inspiration in faces like Breite halbfette Grotesque. Shown by the Bauer & Co foundry in Germany in 1883, this raw sans has roots in early American Gothics. Sack, in turn, cites “19th century wood type and poster fonts of American origin” as the main influences for Ivory. No wonder the two typefaces go along so well. Both Ivory and Proto Grotesk exhibit a strong contrast and some eccentric details. They’re not stuck in nostalgia, though, and make for a mix that suits the contemporary, funny, and at times cheeky program of Edition Moderne quite well. As of 2024, the publishing house is managed by Julia Marti and Marie-France Lombardo and maintains its focus on comics, graphic novels, and humor.
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Proto Grotesk Bold
Edition Moderne
For the 2016 annual Money Issue of The New York Times Magazine, design director Gail Bichler used Proto Grotesk for cover design & interior layout.
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Proto Grotesk Bold
The New York Times Magazine, 2016 Money Issue

Information

Design

Jean-Baptiste Levée

Release Date

2014-07-15

Team

Ilya Ruderman

Yury Ostromentsky

Emilios Theofanous

Yoann Minet

Hugues Gentile

Awards & distinctions

Type Directors Club New York Certificate of excellence 2015

Type Directors Club Tokyo Selection 2015

Hiii Typography Merit Award 优异奖 2014

Typecache best of 2014

Typo365 best of 2014

Typographica's favourite of 2014

Typefacts Best of 2014

Fontwerk Die besten Schriften 2014

Download PDF Specimen

About this font

Over the last hundred years or so, utilitarian typefaces have shed most of their quirks and eccentricities on the way to becoming more versatile and universal. That makes some sense, but there’s no reason type can’t be both steadfast and peculiar. Drawing from an early German sans serif used for catalog text, Proto Grotesk revives an era when clunkiness was a virtue. Its pedigree is varied, vacillating between Egyptian and Modern, round and edged, even sans and slab. Despite these contradictions, its posture is nothing less than sturdy and forthright. Proto Grotesk is strange but steady.

Formats

Static (OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2)

About the designers

Jean-Baptiste Levée is a type designer with a strong focus on corporate and bespoke typefaces.
Jean-Baptiste Levée
CEO, founder
Jean-Baptiste Levée (1981) has designed over a hundred typefaces for industry, moving pictures, fashion and media. He is the founder of the independent foundry Production Type.
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