Diogenes Didot
Diogenes Verlag
2016
The timeless look of Diogenes Verlag's books is owed mainly to the stark white covers, the iconic thin frame, and—not least—the ownable 'Didot' font used on all literature titles.
In the pre Macintosh era, the Swiss publishing house used to set its covers using a roll of Staromat tape with a special 'Didot' cut - the tape was owned by the Basel-based company 'Werbstatt', and the publisher would pay 3 cents pet letter to have a printer film made with the cover's typography: Roman for the author's name, and Italic for the book's title.
Later on Diogenes bought the actual tape and was free to set any cover with no extra hassle.. In the nineties, the font got—rather poorly—digitized, and the tape was no longer in use. In 2016 I set out to redraw the font, based on the tape that still reside in the publisher's offices, with a small update to the classic Didot serifs - giving it a more of a 'Scotch' flavor.
In the pre Macintosh era, the Swiss publishing house used to set its covers using a roll of Staromat tape with a special 'Didot' cut - the tape was owned by the Basel-based company 'Werbstatt', and the publisher would pay 3 cents pet letter to have a printer film made with the cover's typography: Roman for the author's name, and Italic for the book's title.
Later on Diogenes bought the actual tape and was free to set any cover with no extra hassle.. In the nineties, the font got—rather poorly—digitized, and the tape was no longer in use. In 2016 I set out to redraw the font, based on the tape that still reside in the publisher's offices, with a small update to the classic Didot serifs - giving it a more of a 'Scotch' flavor.