The system of typefaces designed by myself and Christian Schwartz for Deutsche Bahn, the German state railways, just won the most prestigious design prize in the country.
You don’t submit to this competition, you get proposed by one of the official design institutions in Germany. The actual medals will be handed out by the Federal Secretary for the Economy on 9 February, and officially we don’t know that we may have won the top prize in the communication category. Only 25 prizes were awarded out of 950 submissions. This, apparently, is The Prize of Prizes. It is as much an award for the political achievement of persuading a large bureaucratic institution to even commission their own typefaces, as it is for the design work.
And here is some evidence of our work: an ad before and after, i.e. Helvetica on the left, DB Type Head on the right.
Erik:
DBType is a beautiful font. Is it commercially available? If not, do you think it will be?
Thank you, John. You can only buy the font if you work for DB. It will never be available to the general type-using public. That is the nature of exclusive corporate fonts.
I see. Thanks. And I’m enjoying your new blog.
Jon
What a superbly crafted typeface. Your attention to the most minute of details is truly inspiring. I am also enjoying your new blog, Erik!