Unearthing Europe’s forgotten interwar letterforms — The Brand Identity – Graphic Design’s Greatest

Europe’s rich tradition of architectural lettering remains largely untapped by the type design world, with only fragments adapted for contemporary use. Paula Mastrangelo and Ramiro Espinoza recognised this gap when they launched Brutal Types in 2024 – a foundry dedicated exclusively to display typefaces inspired by the experimental alphabets of Europe’s interwar period. Rather than reviving the same well-documented examples found in graphic design history books, the duo embarks on extensive fieldwork, walking and cycling through Dutch cities to capture forgotten letterforms on building façades, tombstones and vintage book covers. Their systematic approach to documentation and revival has uncovered genuinely overlooked material from architects, artisans and anonymous designers of the 1920s and 1930s, creating a growing collection that offers access to character-rich typefaces with authentic historical roots.

TBI Hi Paula and Ramiro! How are you both?

RE Hi TBI! We’re doing well and just starting to enjoy our vacation. The final stretch of the Brutal Types project was a lot of work, and we were exhausted.

TBI What prompted you to launch Brutal Types as a separate venture from Retype Foundry?

PM Retype focuses on large type families aimed at the publishing and corporate markets. Since its start in 2007, we’ve worked to build a catalogue with consistency and identity. Each project takes many months of development, which means we usually release only two new families per year.

That pursuit of coherence and of appealing to a specific clientele also meant setting aside display and script fonts, which, because of their more informal character, didn’t align with the image we envisioned for the foundry.

RE
The truth is, we also enjoy designing display typefaces – especially those that push boundaries. The Dutch vernacular lettering tradition is incredibly rich, and we’ve become somewhat obsessed with documenting standout examples we come across on book covers, vintage packaging, enamel nameplates, façades and memorials. From this archive, a number of experimental prototypes emerged, but Retype wasn’t the right place to publish them.

So, during a working session in late 2024, we decided to establish Brutal Types as a separate foundry dedicated to our display designs.

TBI You’ve chosen to focus specifically on the interwar period – what draws you to this era of lettering and design?

PM There are many reasons. Living in the Netherlands gives us easy access to primary sources, whether in museum collections or simply on display in public spaces. We also define ourselves as politically progressive, and we naturally feel an affinity with the ideals that inspired designers such as Fré Cohen, Tine Baanders, Albert Hahn and Michel de Klerk. In addition, Ramiro studied design at a school of architecture and urban planning (FADU-UNL), and while still in Argentina, he became fascinated with the Amsterdam School – a movement that continues to inspire us.

RE
That’s true. One of the first fonts I designed and released was Kurversbrug, a revival of the lettering used on Amsterdam’s bridges. The Het Schip Museum, dedicated to the Amsterdam School, even adopted it as its institutional typeface.

The European interwar years were a hotbed of creativity and experimentation. Although the period was brief, it generated movements and ideas whose influence has extended across the 20th century and into today. While some designers had already revived alphabets from this era, in our view, no type foundry had committed itself entirely to reinterpreting and renewing these designs in a comprehensive and professional way. That’s the niche we decided to explore.

TBI It’s clear from your site that you’re not the only ones on the Brutal Types team?

RE That’s right. From the start, we’ve worked with other type designers, some of whom later contributed their own fonts. Fabian Kolar and Sabina Chipară designed Mossel and Oldehove, respectively. Jolana Sýkorová created Weng, inspired by a Wendingen magazine cover, and Daniel Calders designed Rebus, a revival of monumental Antwerp lettering.

The project also required countless hours of technical production. The support of Nóra Békés, Jacques Le Bailly and Fabio Pop was essential for meeting our deadlines, and Jakob Fangmeier handled the Python programming that allowed us to automate parts of the type specimen process.

We’re very grateful to the entire team. There were certainly moments of stress and pressure during development, but everyone gave their best, and that commitment made it possible to bring the project to completion.

TBI How do you go about discovering these forgotten letterforms on buildings and in archives across Europe?

RE Many of our discoveries come from long walks through Dutch cities and towns. We always carry good photography equipment and the right lenses to capture details in hard-to-reach places. Kristiana, Gedenk, Midwestern, and Genootschap are good examples of fonts that originated from architectural façades.

We also love exploring unfamiliar towns by bike, and we often stop at cemeteries to study tombstones with unusual or striking inscriptions. Several of our designs – Karmix, Kanela, Hoek and Joop among others still in development – are based on this type of carved lettering.

PM We’ve also built a large collection of vintage books with hand-lettered covers, some by celebrated designers, others by anonymous artists whose work is equally remarkable. We really do judge books by their covers. Fonts like Antonius, Revolutie, Weng, Anders, and Tikte were inspired by alphabets found on book and magazine covers.

Sometimes inspiration even comes from everyday objects, as with the Keuken typeface, which was based on iconic Dutch enamel kitchen canisters from the 1920s.

We really do judge books by their covers.

TBI Can you walk us through your process of adapting architectural lettering into a functional typeface?

RE Contrary to what some might think, it’s far from being a straightforward process. Many experimental alphabets were never intended to function as type systems, so they require careful interpretation and redesign to eliminate inconsistencies and ‘tame’ their forms. The challenge is knowing how far to go – correct them too much and you lose the charm that makes them unique. It’s always a balancing act between the rules of “good typography” and the intentional irregularities that define the character of the original alphabet. On top of that, you need to design additional characters, figures, and diacritics that feel consistent with the style.

TBI How do you divide responsibilities when working on a Brutal Types release?

PM We don’t follow a strict division of labour, though Ramiro usually handles font production and technical aspects like website development, thanks to his experience.

I focus on designing the fonts I’m most drawn to, hunting for vintage books in secondhand shops and online, and creating mockups and social media content.

TBI Coming from different backgrounds – Ramiro from type design and Paula from editorial – how does this influence your approach to the Brutal Types collection?

RE Actually, I also come from editorial design. As a student, I published a newspaper on typography and design, and later I worked for Argentine newspapers and magazines. But around 2007, when I started collaborating with FontShop International, I gradually left editorial design behind and became a full-time type designer.

PM That’s true – we both have strong editorial backgrounds. We also know it’s a fairly conservative market, slow to embrace new typographic ideas. Brutal Types was created to serve other segments of design and media where expression, novelty, and strong style are essential to capturing attention.

TBI You’ve mentioned wanting to avoid the “same examples found in graphic design history books” – how do you ensure you’re uncovering genuinely overlooked material?

RE Our goal is to shed light on alphabets that have not yet received the recognition they deserve. While a few of our fonts draw on well-known sources—such as those featured in books like Dutch Type – many others were virtually unknown until we uncovered them through our own fieldwork. Examples include Kasimir, inspired by the entrance lettering of the Professor Casimir School in Voorburg; Mossel, derived from the signage above Café Steijn in Rotterdam; and Emmahuis, based on the monumental letters of the Emmahuis building in Rotterdam.

We also put a lot of effort into the photography we publish on our site. We want visitors to enjoy browsing each font section, almost like paging through a well-made history book on typography.

PM It’s important to us that our typefaces aren’t derived from the same overused sources you can find with a quick Google search or in the limited literature available. In that sense, we’re not just creating new fonts – we’re also broadening the typographic palette for designers and branding agencies. When an art director comes to our site, we want them to find fonts with a strong, distinctive voice they won’t see elsewhere.

TBI How do you balance historical authenticity with the practical needs of contemporary designers?

PM It’s not easy, but my work as a graphic designer for diverse clients gives me the perspective to think like a font user. Marketing standards and the boundaries of ‘commercial art’ were very different in 1920s Europe. Just look at the lettering on advertising, packaging, or posters from that period.

Needless is to say, today, companies are far more cautious with typography. The downside is that so many products and campaigns end up looking generic, bland, and lacking personality. That’s why it feels important to offer designers alternatives with more edge and distinction.

TBI Who do you see as the primary audience for these display typefaces?

RE We see many areas where expressive, modular, or unconventional fonts can add real value: logos, book covers, posters, museum campaigns, film titles, websites, video games, EDM festival branding, packaging for candy, sodas, or nutritional products – even branding for synthesisers. Anywhere personality matters, these typefaces can make a difference.

TBI What’s next for Brutal Types in 2025 and beyond?

PM We currently have another fifty fonts in production. At the same time, we continue to document lettering across the Netherlands for future projects.

We’re also working toward a book, based on the same concept as Brutal Types. Our aim is to publish a volume that showcases some of the most striking monumental lettering of the Dutch interwar avant-garde – a subject that hasn’t been sufficiently historicized or documented. Many of these alphabets were created by architects, which means typography books have largely overlooked them, while architecture books tend to relegate them to secondary status as decorative details.

We believe such a book would be of real interest to the international design and typography community.

Brutal Types