28.04.17
GT Walsheim
Swiss artist Otto Baumberger set the tone of Zurich’s visual language in the early 20th century. A poster artist with strong typographic sensibilities, his bold, condensed letterforms and geometric architectural drawings became the hallmark of one of Europe’s exploding metropolises.
Almost a century after his heyday as Switzerland’s foremost poster designer, and nearly 60 years after his death, Baumberger’s typographic legacy has been given new life thanks to his modern successors and celebrity type designers, Grilli Type. The foundry have taken GT Walsheim, a font originally inspired by Baumberger, and updated it to function in today’s visual landscape.
“At times Baumberger’s work leaves the aesthetics of landscape painting behind for a more abstract, geometric look that was so characteristic of the later Swiss Style,” says Grilli Type. “All those posters have in common is that they allow Baumberger’s geometric lettering to take center stage.”
In 2009 these letters attracted the attention of designer Noel Leu, who was drawn to the lasting modernity of Baumberger’s designs. He felt compelled to create a complete typeface based on fragments in Bamberger’s posters. While using this font in a client project, Grilli Type “noticed how useful alternate designs for Y, a, and y would be. The new typeface now contains alternates for these three characters.” What’s more they’ve also created an entire Cyrillic alphabet in the signature Walsheim style.
GT Walsheim is now available to purchase from Grilli Type, and even has its own dedicated website exploring some of Baumberger’s history and the whole Walsheim story.