“In search of good design” – the Red Dot Design Award is one of the world’s largest design competitions. The Red Dot Label has become established internationally as one of the most sought-after marks of quality for good design. In order to appraise the diversity in this field in a professional manner, the Red Dot Design Award breaks down into three disciplines. Competitions for each of these disciplines are held once every year.
What do the inventor of letterpress printing and variable typefaces have in common? At first glance, nothing. In this work, we take a deeper look: He and other type designers were trying to make type variable long before digitization. With the invention of the computer and the font design programs that came with it, new possibilities were added. But here, too, typographers knew how to push these programs to their limits. It wasn’t until the release of “OpenType Font Variations” in 2016 that variable fonts found the wide appeal that they are known for (in many places) today. This paper looks at some historical examples of giving fonts variability in their proportions through construction or technical development, which from certain points of view can be seen as precursors of today’s approach to the development of variable fonts.
