I readily admit to being a bit of a Grotesque typeface junkie. Whenever a new branding project calls for one, I inevitably spend far too much time poring over all the modern day variants. Luckily for me, we’re living in what might someday be deemed the ‘Golden Age’ of Grotesques. A slew of them have been released in the past few years from any number of foundries, with no end in sight.
Below is a list of some of my personal favorites. They’re all great alternatives to Helvetica, especially when you need a bit more personality to come through in your branding. Some of them skew closer to the mid-century rational, restrained neo-Grotesques, while others borrow more heavily from the eccentric late 19th century German Grotesks and American & British Gothics. Some even were designed specifically to bridge the gap between the two.
Here’s my list in no particular order.
1. Neue Haas Grotesk
Designers: Berton Hasebe, Christian Schwartz, Max Miedinger
Released: 2011
Foundry: Commercial Type
Okay, not truly an alternative to Helvetica, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t start off with Christian Schwartz’s 2011 restoration project of Helvetica — Neue Haas Grotesk. As Font Bureau states it in their beautiful microsite (here) “type designer Christian Schwartz has newly restored the original Neue Haas Grotesk in digital form — bringing back features like optical size variations, properly corrected obliques, alternate glyphs, refined spacing, and more.” It all looks beautiful. There is even an alternative set with a straight legged R and round dots, periods, commas, and quotes.
2. Baton Turbo
Designer: Anton Koovit and Yassin Baggar
Released: 2011
Foundry: Fatype
Baton Turbo is a new fave of mine. Baton Turbo draws inspiration from vintage signs found on French shops. AIGA’s Eye on Design nicely sums it up: “Baton Turbo looks a bit like Helvetica, Gotham, Gill Sans, and Futura all ran a red light at once and ended up in a heap in the middle of a 4-way intersection.” Stylistic sets provide alternates for the letters a, g and j. Turbo pairs nicely with it’s quirkier, sister typeface Baton, a condensed typeface Fatype created for the french version of GQ magazine.
3. Acumin
Designer: Robert Slimbach
Released: 2016
Foundry: Adobe
Robert Slimbach has designed a number of significant typefaces for Adobe through the decades and his take on the neo-Grotesque is no exception. It’s an extremely versatile, superfamily that would play nicely with any large branding project. Acumin strives for neutrality and was designed to be comfortable for reading at normal text sizes. It’s available on Typekit if you have an account. Jeffery Zeldman is a fan too apparently.
4. Theinhardt
Designer: François Rappo
Released: 2009
Foundry: Optimo
Of everything on this list, this ones feels closest in spirit to Akzidenz Grotesk to me. Theinhardt is a workhorse, offering a wide number of weights. Named after Ferdinand Theinhardt, a 19th century type designer and punchcutter, whose foundry released Akzidenz Grotesk. A real beauty.
5. Founders Grotesk
Designer: Kris Sowersby
Released: 2013
Foundry: Klim
Like many of the typefaces on this list, the idea for Founders Grotesk originated from looking at early 20th century Grotesques found in Type Specimen books. In this case, to be precise, a 1912 Miller & Richard Type Specimen. It’s full of charisma and great for punchy, attention grabbing headlines. Another huge family offering Condensed, Extra Condensed and Text variants in addition to straight up Founders Grotesk.
6. GT America
Designer: Noël Leu, with Seb McLauchlan
Released: 2016
Foundry: Grilli Type
You’ve probably already seen the playful microsite for GT America in all its red, white and blue glory. Grilli Type says “GT America is the missing bridge between 19th century American Gothics and 20th century European Neo-Grotesk typefaces.” This means nuanced details like two lowercase g options, among other things. Yet another superfamily — it consists of 84 styles in 6 widths and includes a Mono typeface to boot.
7. NB Akademie
Designer: SG
Released: 2016
Foundry: Neubau
Neabau is one of my favorite foundries of late, putting out one exceptional typeface after another. Akademie is the conceptual successor to it’s previous release NB International (which could be on this list as well). From the Neubau site: “The typeface’s influences and naming go way back to legendary German type designer Ferdinand Theinhardt and his revolutionary typeset ‘Royal Grotesk’”. It includes a Mono face in 5 weights with matching italics.
8. Dia Grotesk
Designer: Florian Schick, Lauri Toikka
Released: 2014
Foundry: Schick Toikka
If you need a typeface with warmth and oversized personality, Dia should be near the top of your list. Dia boldly shows off it’s historic roots with the spirit of early Grotesques shining through in the design. There’s a great review on Typographica here.
9. Sharp Grotesk
Designer: Lucas Sharp, Chantra Malee
Released: 2017
Foundry: Sharp Type
Sharp Grotesk has been seen in use most prominently in Dropbox’s recent rebranding. It has a massive range of 259 fonts (!), with 21 widths in 7 weights. It definitely has some of the spirit of late 19th century Woodtype typefaces in it’s DNA. Sharp veers impressively from ultra-condensed to super wide.
10. Dada Grotesk
Designer: deValence
Released: 2005
Foundry: Optimo
Like Dia and Sharp above, Dada definitely fits the bill of quirky modern grotesques drawing from the past. According to Optimo’s site: “The font is based on a typeface found in a 1918 issue from the “Dada Paris” magazine, originally called Aurora.” Condensed, Compressed, and Mono versions are in the works currently.
11. Post Grotesk
Designer: Josh Finklea
Released: 2013
Foundry: Sharp Type
Post Grotesk has a very neutral disposition overall, with some amiable and warm touches thrown in. Akzidenz and Venus are both cited as inspirations. Sharp Type says: “Post Grotesk is informed largely by the rational tone of the more systematic grotesks, while leaning into the looseness of the less structural examples of the genre.”
12. Atlas Grotesk
Designer: Carvalho Bernau with Christian Schwartz
Released: 2012
Foundry: Commercial
Atlas is stoic and assured, but simultaneously warm and inviting. The aesthetic of Atlas was inspired in large part by the sans serifs of the 1950s, specifically Dick Dooijes’s Mercator. Bernau describes the impetus behind the design: “We like to think of it as a European Grotesk with American Gothic proportions and contrast: one that is clear and fresh while simultaneously authoritative.” Dropbox Paper utilizes Atlas as it’s typeface— you’ll no doubt love seeing it set against a white backdrop as you write.
13. Basis Grotesque
Designer: The Entente
Released: 2015
Foundry: Colophon Foundry
Colophon’s highest profile typeface is the popular Aperçu, but make sure to check out Basis. Like Aperçu, it oozes personality and charm. It was originally drawn in one weight for the magazine Hotshoe and then worked on over three years to include a larger family for wide release. It features six weights in both regular and italic as well as two monospaced weights in regular and italic.
14. Neue Haas Unica
Designer: Team ‘77
Released: 2015
Foundry: Monotype
Unica has a very interesting backstory. Print magazine recounts it: “Created in 1980 by Team ’77 for the Haas Type Foundry, Unica represented a marriage of Helvetica and Univers. The typeface was meant to be less formal than Univers and less mannered than Helvetica — yet still as clean and versatile as both.” It was never released however due to a bunch of legal disputes. A few years ago Monotype’s Toshi Omagari resurrected it and added more weights, languages and letters. Very close in nature to Helvetica.
15. Suisse Int’l
Designer: Ian Party
Released: 2011
Foundry: Swiss Typefaces
An excellent neo-Grotesque from Swiss Typefaces, that bears similarities to both Helvetica and Univers. There’s a great interview on Type.Today with Swiss type designer Ian Party where he talks about his design philosophy.
16. Marcin Antique
Designer: Mário Feliciano
Released: 2010
Foundry: Feliciano Type Foundry
A less well know Grotesque, that sets itself apart nicely from it’s brethren. It’s inspiration is drawn from late 19th-century French types produced by the Fonderie Gustave Mayeur in Paris. The 1894 and 1912 Specimens were referenced in particular according to the designer’s notes. Village’s description: “Marcin Antique strikes a nice middle ground. The typeface looks less polished than most neo-grotesques, yet doesn’t over-emphasise the quirks of its vintage source material.”
17. Scto Grotesk A
Designer: Florian Schick, Lauri Toikka
Released: 2018
Foundry: Schick Toikka
I won’t lie — I’m totally enamored by this new 2018 release. It feels very of the times with slightly wide tracking (it pairs with Scto Grotesk B, which is narrower) and embodies an overall welcoming personality. Think of it is as a nice dress shirt without the tie. The designers describe it this way: “It is decidedly matter-of-fact, but not sterile.”
This is by no means an exhaustive list. Also check out: National, Akkurat, Aktiv Grotesk, Graphik, Lab Grotesque, FF Real, Gräbenbach, Proto Grotesk.
