Nikolai

“The ancients stole all our great ideas from us.”, Mark Twain complained. “Nonsense!” we respond.

Rag

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master. — Leonardo da Vinci

Unless otherwise stated, the images used are subject to Unsplash licenses.

Admittedly at the very beginning of the conception of Nikolai was the attempt to reinterpret an old idea. At the end is something that has rarely been seen before, in terms of character and typographical impact. The best ideas are almost always only the best ideas of their time.

The designer, Franziska Weitgruber, was entrusted with the task of designing a revival of the Monotype typeface, Veronese, during her TypeMedia master’s degree at KABK in The Hague. Veronese is a mechanized version of the Golden Type by William Morris from 1925, which in turn was a rough interpretation of Nicolas Jenson’s earlier Print types of the 1470s. However, she was not entirely satisfied with the result and found her interpretation too cool and too rigid.

Driven by her own aspirations and ambition, she later tried to reinterpret another Jenson Model from the Renaissance. She found Nebiolo’s Jenson in an almost 90-year-old specimen from the legendary Turiner Foundry. Beguiled by the wild and liveliness of the typeface, she began to digitize the bold weight.

Image of the Nebiolo Specimen from the 1930s. It’s clear to see how far the designer moved away from the original. Scans made available by Dr. Thomas Maier.

Very soon, however, she abandoned her revivalist approach and developed the design and forms in a more emancipated and contemporary direction. In doing so, the typeface began to evolve into a display family full of character. And so Nicolas became Nikolai with the crucial letter ‘k’ which is so important in its design. The original Renaissance-DNA is now barely recognizable in the design owing to the clear stroke contrast.

The font was initially published on the Future Fonts platform. Renowned for showcasing refreshing and rebellious designs at an early stage, the young platform offered Franziska the ideal space to develop Nikolai into a modern extended family. The expansion into different widths, as well as the design of the italics, ornaments and alternative forms, such as round instead of square dots, are due in part to direct user feedback on Future Fonts. All these characteristics make the typeface a highly versatile headline, poster and logo font.

Now with its publication on Fontwerk, Nikolai has reached its optimum level of maturity. The angular and pointed shapes are full of character and fully developed. Overall, it exudes a typographic hardness, which when combined with a sans-serif, especially a geometric one, will command your full attention.

When all your best ideas just lay ahead of you, tease them out with a typeface that knows how to do it.

#65

Uppercase

Lowercase

Latin Accents

ẞ

Ẃ

Ẅ

Ẁ

Ỳ

ẃ

ẅ

ẁ

ỳ

Numerals & Currency Symbols

€

₿

₺

Small Caps

(

)

[

]

{

}

ẁ

ẃ

ẅ

ỳ

‐

‑

‒

–

—

‘

’

‚

“

”

„

•

‰

′

″

‴

‹

›

‽

⁒

€

₺

₿

−

∞

≈

≠

≤

≥

⟨

⟩

⸘

Punctuation

;

…

•

‽

⸘

(

)

{

}

[

]

–

—

‒

‐

‑

‚

„

“

”

‘

’

‹

›

‴

⟨

⟩

Mathematical Signs & Symbols

∙

≅

≙

−

≠

≥

≤

≈

∞

∫

Ω

∆

∏

∑

√

∂

‰

Arrows & Shapes

↑

↗

→

↘

↓

↙

←

↖

●

○

◊

■

□

▲

▼

△

▽

▴

▸

▾

◂

Ligatures

ffb

ffh

ffi

ffk

ffl

Greek

End of Life Times

Schaumberg Apple Juice

WMN Magazine

Coronado Bikes

200 Years of the Frauenbad

L’Amour du Pain

KARAK

The Spirited Garden

Andrea Grudda

Granada Limpia

Franziska Weitgruber

Mastering, Production

Andreas Frohloff
Christoph Koeberlin
Rosalie Wagner (Variable Fonts)

Marketing

Franziska Weitgruber (naming)
Ivo Gabrowitsch (copywriting, imagery, specimen)
Lucy Beckley (English translation)
Anja Knust (graphic design, imagery)

Design Period

2018–2020

Release Date

July 20, 2020; Variable Fonts February 15, 2022

Recommended Use

Advertising & Packaging
Editorial & Publishing
Logo, Branding & CI
Fashion
Music & Nightlife
Poster & Billboards

Formats

static: OTF, WOFF2; variable: TTF, WOFF2
Further formats available on request

Licenses

TRIAL Free Test license
STANDARD Combined Print, Web, App and eBook license
EXTENDED Larger volume + Broadcasting
Further types of license available on request

Modifications & Extensions

Available on request

Variable Fonts

Included in the Family package at no extra cost.

2 Axes: width, weight

File sizes upright styles: 251 KB Desktop (TTF), 97 KB (WOFF2)

File sizes italic styles: 258 KB Desktop (TTF), 102 KB (WOFF2)

Trademarks

Nikolai™️ is a trademark of Fontwerk GmbH

Download PDF

“The ancients stole all our great ideas from us.”, Mark Twain complained. “Nonsense!” we respond.

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