ITC Officina Display
When Erik Spiekermann first conceived of Officina in the early 1980s, his goal was to create a small family of type that was ideally suited for office correspondence and business documentation. The design was an instant success, both inside and outside the office. Graphic designers immediately saw the communicative power of Officina and began using it for all kinds of applications. And, while it performed admirably in larger sizes, the design was created primarily for text use and worked best in text sizes.
When Spiekermann redesigned The Economist magazine in 2001, he chose Officina as the “information” face. “All text is set in The Economist’s own typeface, which was also redesigned for the re-launch,” says Spiekermann, “but the graphs, tables, sidebars and captions are set in ITC Officina Sans for contrast and clarity.” However, when the faces were tested at large sizes for the cover, it became obvious that the design was not suited for display copy. Design changes were necessary. “The display version I sketched out had sharp corners,” Spiekermann says. “The terminals are not as oblique, and the swings at the top left of the characters have all but gone.” The changes he made to ITC Officina for The Economist became the basis for ITC Officina Display.
Only the Bold and Black weights were redesigned for The Economist, but it became apparent that these could serve as the foundation for a new suite of designs to complement the existing ITC Officina family. Spiekermann worked with fellow type designer, Christian Schwartz, to complete the additions. As Spiekermann tells it, “The digital work was carried out by Christian, who also helped to create a Light weight and then improved the overall appearance of the Regular, Bold and Black designs. The new designs are slightly heavier and fit a little snugger than the text versions. Punctuation marks and the dots over the ‘i’ and ‘j’ were made smaller. A series of dingbats was even created for the new designs.” Many additional, more subtle changes were also made to the original design, all with the goal of making Officina Display an excellent communicator at large sizes.
“The final design,” according to Spiekermann, “is a series of faces designed to achieve maximum impact at display sizes.” ITC Officina Display has all the character and personality of the original Officina – now with a bigger voice.