Gronau Font Family

Andrea Tartarelli discovered the letterforms that would inspire his Gronau family in a 1912 specimen by the Berlin-based Wilhelm Gronaus Schriftgießerei, that showcased the typeface Fette Reichs-Deutsch, designed by Wilhelm Gronau in 1902. Even if Gronau also cerated Art Nouveau inspired typefaces like Berolina or idiosyncratic Sütterlin “blackletter cursives” like Hohenzollern Schrift, his work mostly centres on gothic letter shapes. Fette Reichs Deutsch, that Tartarelli digitised as Gronau Fette, sports a very broad and square structure, mild contrast and a very geometric treatment of shapes, with slightly rounded terminals, straight lines and clear 45 degree angles. This unusual, pre-modernist approach to letterform inspired Tartarelli to explore its potential for display use, with the creation of an inline version that modernises the original and pushes to the maximum its dynamic energy. Gronau inline design transforms the broad nib marks into a ribbon folding in 3d to recreate SHOW ALL