Aldo Novarese, font designer

Aldo Novarese, the designer of fonts like Eurostile, Stop, and
ITCNovarese, was born in 1920 in Pontestura, Piedmont, Italy.

He studied at the Scuola Artieri Stampatori In Turin, a school for
printers. He then improved his talents at the Scuola di Tipografia GB
Paravia, a typography school where he returned after World-War II, to
teach aesthetics of typography.

In 1936, he began his studies at the Artistic Studio of the Turinese
Typefoundry Nebiolo, where he spent almost forty years of his creative
career. Just two years later Novarese won a gold medal at the Ludi
Juveniles of the Italian fascistic regime. This medal later saved his
life when he was imprisoned for his participation in protests against
World War II. He later joined the left-wing partisan formations, to
fight against German Nazi troops. His War experience marked him for the
rest of his life.

After 1945 Novarese returned to Torino. He became head of the Artistic
Studio of the Nebiolo Typefoundry in the Fifties, succeeding Alessandro
Butti, with whom he had created typefaces like Microgramma. Novarese was
an active figure in the cultural life of his time, representing a
Turinese opinion in an often polemic dialogue with his Milanese designer
colleagues. He also stood in an intellectual competition with the
overwhelming Swiss influence on the typographical market.

In 1975 Novarese left Nebiolo Typefoundry, which closed it's Artistic
Studio because of industry related reasons… He later cooperated with
other great foundries like ITC and Berthold.

Novarese died in 1995 at the age of 75 after a highly creative life. His
creations still have a strong influence on our present aesthetical
context.

His legacy contains more than one hundred complete Type families a total
of about 300 fonts.

Among them are creations like Geraldus (1956), created to be the
"Italian answer" to the lineal Swiss designs of the '50s and early '60s,
Exempla (1961), Eurostile (1962) (see also the Eurostile article),
Magister (1966), Forma (1966), Metropol (1967), a clone of Lambert's
Compacta, Stop (1971), a logotypic font with a legendary global success.
His post Nebiolo Creations include Mixage (1977), Symbol (1982),
ITCFenice(1977), ITC Novarese (1978), Colossalis (1984), Central (1995)
Many of the fonts are not digitised and are not accessible through
digital type channels.

Some web resources:

Linotype: http://www.fonts.de/fonts/ehtml/3490F91C/designersk_fr.html

URW: http://www.urwpp.de/deutsch/index1.htm

Eurostile: http://www.urwpp.de/deutsch/fonts/e/e004003t/e004003t.htm

Stop: http://www.urwpp.de/deutsch/fonts/s/s013000d/s013000d.htm

ITC Symbol: http://www.urwpp.de/deutsch/fonts/s/s026013t/s026013t.htm

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