Finding Forte!
Literally designed at the kitchen table in post-war Vienna, Karl Reißberger was the first Austrian graphic designer to license his font to Monotype in England in the 1950s. In the late 1990s, the font found it’s way into Microsoft Office applications—and thus onto millions of desktop computers worldwide.
This is a book and exhibition project celebrating a dual anniversary: 60 years have passed since the font “Forte” was published by the Monotype Corporation, and for 25 years it has been provided with Microsoft Office applications.
Wellknown personalities of the typographic world such as Stanley Morison or Vincent Connare stood alongside the sweeping lifelines of this font, but its designer himself, Karl Reißberger, has hardly been known.
This is about to change.
In addition to the history of the typeface’s development, its way into the Microsoft Office bundle and its subsequent worldwide use, the book will also include an artistic examination of the typeface’s formal language.
We asked artists from all disciplines to contribute their interpretations and hope to publish a “somewhat different” book on typography.
In September 2022, the book launch (Slanted Publishers, slanted.de) will be accompanied by an exhibition at the designforum Wien.
