Typeface Design – Amsterdam

My initial forays into type consisted of hacking Letraset, distorting it on photocopiers, playing around with it on stat cameras, then adding to that with tech pens, etc. Then in early 88 I started drawing type on the computer. I was doing fanzines, gig posters, logos, tape covers, etc. and I knew instinctively that I wanted to use typefaces other than the ones I had at my disposal. My choices at the time were very limited, and nothing I had access to accurately conveyed the look I thought would be appropriate for say an experimental electronic combo.

So I started drawing my own typefaces.

Now in those days I had access to a 512K Mac. Not much computing power. After that I got my hands on a Mac with 2MB of RAM and a 20MB hard disc. Still not that much computing power. To facilitate production, the stuff I drew was fairly simplistic. Being able to step and repeat elements made life simpler. I didn’t have any pretenses that I was able to create complex calligraphic scripts, and these early orthogonal typefaces were a good starting point. They gave me something that could give my graphic design a distinctive look.

Amsterdam is a compendium of early experiments. I had about 9 completed geometric typefaces, some incomplete ideas and figured one like this was enough. Took what I liked out of them, and also culled some stuff I had done for logos and headlines. Quite deliberately I went for a look that wasn’t so harmonious. I turned it onto a monocase, added a few missing elements, and created the different weights and variants. This was done in 93.

Named after the city I was born in.