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Scala Sans | A new typeface

The first printed type specimen of Scala Sans was published by FontShop International in 1993, shortly after its release. It was the first time I wrote about my philosophy of deriving a sans from a seriffed type. 

I started the specimen project together with my friend and colleague Evert Bloemsma. Evert had left the School of Arts in Arnhem three years before me, and I remember I was very inspired by the fact that he had finished his studies with a type design project. After ten years this ‘study’ project had finally resulted in his first typeface FF Balance.

When FF Balance and FF Scala Sans were released in 1993, we both wanted them to be supported by a serious type specimen. FontShop International gave us ‘carte blanche’ as long as we would take care of the production ourselves. Evert and I decided to print the two specimens on one large sheet of paper, using two colors.

After having written the text, I asked Robin Kinross to make the English translation and Jaap van Triest to design the leaflet. I couldn’t have done it better myself. Jaap designed a small leaflet consisting of only two sheets of A4 paper, folded in such a way that it resulted in a beautiful compact leaflet of 12 pages. In the text I wrote about the special features of Scala Sans: ligatures, non-lining figures, a real italic. One feature turned out to be quite unique: Scala Sans became the first ever sans serif font with italic small caps.

Scala Sans | A new typeface     
Download the specimen (PDF 120 Kb)

©  Martin Majoor. First published by FSI FontShop International, 1993