Originally designed in 1928, Plak is something of a lost gem in the type world. Despite being drawn by Futura creator Paul Renner, it never achieved the same popularity and spent decades lacking a much-needed digital revival. Monotype designers Linda Hintz and Toshi Omagari have taken its existing three weights and, after extensive research into the original wood type, extended them into the vast Neue Plak family.
The typeface is available in 60 weights that stay true to Renner’s intentions, and offer the same blend of “quirky” details and “German stiffness” – as Hintz describes it. The design is an unusual mixture, bringing together a defiant outer appearance that’s counteracted by more playful details found in the lowercase r, and the large dots of the lowercase i. Other distinctive details include open or strikethrough counters, and a set of hairline widths that reduce Renner’s original design to its bare bones.
Neue Plak’s display weights are crying out to be used in editorial, on packaging or in logos, while its text weight works well in both print and digital environments. Neue Plak Text Variables are font files which are featuring one axis and have a preset instance from Thin to Black
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