Hermann Zapf
Videos
Hermann Zapf was a German type designer and calligrapher who lived in Darmstadt, Germany. He was married to the calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. Typefaces he designed include
Zapf in 1960
Zapf signing test glass panels at RIT, May 2007
Zapf teaching at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1980
Optima
Videos
Optima is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf and released by the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, West Germany, in 1958.
Zapf cited this 15th-century gravestone as inspiring Optima. Portions of the text are copied onto one of his 1950 sketches.
