The ITC Handel Gothic™ typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years – all the while looking as current as tomorrow.
Designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s, and used in the 1973 United Airlines logo developed by Saul Bass, Handel Gothic was an instant success when released to the graphic design community. Its generous lowercase x-height, full-bodied counters and square proportions make the design highly readable at a wide range of sizes. ITC Handel Gothic’s slightly idiosyncratic character shapes gave the face a futuristic look 40 years ago that retains its power today. In addition, its Uncial-like lowercase is instantly identifiable - and unique among sans serif typestyles.
Award-winning type designer Rod McDonald was attracted to the simple, decisive forms of the original, but he felt the design needed to be refined and updated. “One of my goals was to bring a modern typographic discipline to what was really an old phototypesetting font.” To achieve his goal, McDonald re-proportioned every character and balanced the delicate relationship between the curves and the straight strokes. He also added a number of alternate characters to extend the range of the design. “I wanted to give designers a large enough character set so they wouldn’t feel constrained in what they could do. I want them to be able to play with the fonts, not just set words.” McDonald enlarged the family from the single-weight original to five weights, each with a full suite of alternate characters.
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