Sure! The New Alphabet font is an intriguing and avant-garde typeface with a fascinating history and purpose behind its design. Created in 1967 by Wim Crouwel, a notable figure in the Dutch graphic design scene, the New Alphabet was both a product of its time and a forward-thinking experiment in typography.
The 1960s were an era of significant technological advancements and cultural shifts, with the rise of television, computers, and a burgeoning digital age reshaping the world. Crouwel, recognizing the limitations of traditional typefaces in the context of the early digital displays—particularly their low resolution and the difficulty in rendering curves and diagonals—set out to create a typeface that was uncompromisingly suited to the grid-based environments of screens and early digital devices.
The result was the New Alphabet: a highly unconventional, almost alien-looking font made up entirely of verticals, horizontals, and 45-degree angles. It was extreme and nearly illegible to the untrained eye, deliberately pushing the boundaries of what constituted legible type. The font foresaw a future where readability might be sacrificed for the sake of adaptability to technology, a provocative idea at a time when digital design was still in its infancy.
Despite its practical challenges—few could read it without considerable effort—New Alphabet was emblematic of the experimental spirit of its time and has since become an iconic example of modernist design philosophy. It encapsulated Crouwel's belief that the role of a designer was not just to decorate but to solve problems, even if it meant challenging conventional aesthetics.
In the years since its creation, New Alphabet has enjoyed a cult status among graphic designers and typographers. It has been revisited in various forms, including digital versions that pay homage to its original vision, allowing a new generation of designers to explore its unique characteristics and underlying concepts. As technology has advanced and screen resolutions have improved dramatically, the font remains a fascinating historical footnote, signaling a moment when design boldly met the challenges of an evolving digital landscape.
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Finally! A free version of Wim Crouwel's New Alphabet 3 by Matt McInerney.


Just read about the show in today's Daily Telegraph. I must have seen/read this font on countless occasions but I never knew of it's designer's name/creator. Will have to go down to London's Design Museum whilst the exhibition is on!

Cheers Ben Cowell


New Alphabet


Unknown license
65 glyphs
Copyright Matt McInerney 2008. FontStruct New Alphabet. New Alphabet Regular. Version 1.0. New-Alphabet. FontStruct is a trademark of FSI FontShop International GmbH. http://fontstruct.fontshop.com. Matt McInerney. This font was created using FontStruct (http://fontstruct.fontshop.com). http://www.fontshop.com. http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/fontstructions/show/1533. Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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