FF DIN critique

DIN (short of Deutsche Institut fur Normung) is a modernist, san-serif typeface with an ever-expanding list of styles and weights. The typeface is, in all forms, very condensed and tall. It demonstrates many modernist qualities in its design, from its balanced use of sharp straight lines contrasted with gentle curves, to it’s squared off edges and streamline appearance. The typeface features both lower, upper and numerical cases which all adhere to a very strict, equalliy proportioned x-height, base, ascender and descender lines. The counters used are generally elliptical in shape, with the exception in upper-case, which also features sharper shapes.

The DIN typeface was first released in 1923 by the D Stempel AG foundry, and was originally based on the 1905 typeface for the Royal Prussian Railway Administration. This version, as well as another version released by the Berthold foundry, were most commonly used for schematics, blueprints and technical drawings. This remained true until 1936 when the German Standard Committee selected DIN 1451 as the standard typeface for use in areas of engineering, technology, traffic, administration and business. The committee selected this typeface due to its legibility and ease of writing. Amongst other recommendations adopted by this committee, was an early precursor to the typographic grid system as well as the implementation of uniform paper sizes that we use today.

With this integration of DIN into areas of everyday life came recognition and popularity with the audience, which in-turn resulted in its integration in popular culture and artistically oriented uses, such as advertising, branding and design. One such example is the inspiration that the typeface gave in creating the Bauhaus logo/typeface. In more recent times, the typeface has been utilised for many products, from Adidas to the london design festival, and even video games.

Typeface designer, Albert-Jan Pool, digitally created the most recent variation of the DIN typeface in 1995. This variation was named FF DIN, which unlike its predecessors, came in multiple weights and styles and used simplified-standard weight names.

All in all, the DIN typeface deserves its credit. It’s simplicity and readability make it an excellent choice for a magazine spread, logo or bill board advertisment, and its many forms are both appealing to the eye and, more importantly, can communicate feeling and emotion to it’s audience. Furthermore, given the many weights DIN comes in, there is a huge degree of added flexibility and readability given when giving hierarchy to information.

references:

• http://dinfont.com/story
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_(typeface)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FF_DIN
• http://www.vignelli.com/canon.pdf
• http://typophile.com/node/8937