Industrial Sans

Half man, half machine, …

Noah Nazir

Last edited September 05, 2018

I stick to a relatively narrow definition of ‘industrial’ here—faces that don’t get too clever, with characteristically draftsman-inspired lines and racetrack ‘O’s, most of them very linear in nature—things that ended up working in an industrial setting or clearly made that their starting point.

Industrial and speedy—also check out ITC Juice. Alternate double-story ‘a’ also available.

The Handel Gothic™ typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years - all the while looking as current as... Read More

Trade Gothic Bold in all caps (not Bold No. 2) is one of the first of these industrial faces I noticed as a young designer. A kind of strong voice that stays strong with time.

The first cuts of Trade Gothic were designed by Jackson Burke in 1948. He continued to work on further weights and styles until 1960... Read More

Industrial and speedy—also check out Ciutadella Rounded. Alternate double-story ‘a’ also available.

The original cohesive DIN family made to read well as text and also set display copy with ease. Cool, declaratory, ubiquitous in Germany, and almost so everywhere else.

On the way back to the airport from the 1994 ATypI conference in San Francisco, Albert-Jan Pool... Read More

Another router-inspired square draftsman sans

FF Magda is a grunge family designed by Swiss-born designer Cornel Windlin. “I intended it to be a sister font to Erik van Blokland’s... Read More

During a visit to London in 2008 I fell in love with the square font used on the British car number plates. I was immediately inspired to start working on this font and have been developing it intermittently ever since. Several more trips to London and the project evolved before it finally took off and became Shentox. Despite the starting point being inspired by simple, everyday car plates, the... Read More