Spirited, unaffected and buoyant, the ITC Oldrichium™ type family pays homage to the calligraphy and typeface designs of late Czech designer Oldrich Menhart. “I came upon one of Menhart’s typefaces over a decade ago,” says ITC Oldrichium designer George Thompson, “and I have been collecting examples of his work ever since. His calligraphic style has a haunting gothic flavor and his typefaces are, well, like nothing I’ve seen before.”
Thompson was born in Chicago and grew up in northwest Indiana. “While I’ve been an educator and general graphic designer for over 30 years, lettering and type design have always been an important part of my work.” Since the release of type design software, Thompson has spent much of his free time designing typefaces.
ITC Oldrichium is a subtle melding of the shapes and proportions of Menhart’s Manuscript typeface, the energetic strokes of his calligraphy and Thompson’s own design skills. To Menhart, free handwriting was the best source of inspiration and innovation in the search for new, interesting forms. He often said, “Letters can not be designed until they have been written.” He also refused to use any technical tools (ruler, compass, ruling pen) in his work, stating that typefaces created in this manner could be executed by anybody. Menhart’s conviction was that the quality of a typeface design is dependent upon the artist’s sensitivity, skill and personality.
The result of Thompson’s interpretation of Menhart’s design ethic is a distinctive, powerful – and exceptionally versatile – typeface family. Available in light, regular, demi bold and bold weights, with corresponding italics for all but the bold, ITC Oldrichium is comfortable setting both text and display copy. In addition to the basic weights, Thompson has created an engraved design for those times when an especially powerful statement is the goal.
Now the Oldrichium family is available as a suite of OpenType Pro fonts. Graphic communicators can now work with this versatile design while taking advantage of OpenType’s capabilities. The new ITC Oldrichium Pro fonts also offer an extended character set that supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages.