Nobel

In 1929, Sjoerd Hendrik de Roos at Typefoundry Amsterdam made an adaptation of Berthold Grotesk. He tuned its shapes away from the blunt grotesks of the previous century, and more towards the severity of Futura and other machine-age geometrics. The result was elegant and sophisticated, with more life than many geometrics of the day. Nobel became a perennial favorite in the Netherlands but was less known elsewhere. Finding a specimen by chance in 1992, Tobias Frere-Jones enjoyed its approachable personality and more human voice. Tobias would later joke that Nobel was like “Futura cooked in dirty pots and pans.” He made a Nobel revival an unofficial part of his RISD degree project. New weights, extending beyond the original family, were added gradually, with Cyrus Highsmith and Dyana Weissman adding the Extra Light styles. [frerejones.com]

Originally released by Font Bureau in 1993 and moved to Frere–Jones Type in 2020 [fontsinuse.com], available through Type Network. An updated version was published on the foundry’s website in December 2024.