portfolio

MHt
E
lR L
qb
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y I
OT
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J
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G
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MEMPHIS
a typeface by Rudolph Wolf
k ms
B
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What was going on in the world in 1929?
besides the introduction of the typeface Memphis?
On August 16 of that year Palestine riots broke out
between Palestinians and Jews over the control of
the Western Wall, this resulted in the Jews fleeing Hebron.
In Europe, Fascism was on the rise in Italy and
Vatican City separated into its own sovereign state.
Joseph Stalin rose to power in the Soviet Union. The
stock market crashed this year in the United States,
marking the beginning of the great depression.
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letters are simular enough that many fit within each other
memphis is iconic for its “[“ like structure created via slab serifs
slab serif typefaces do not have a bracket that creates a sharp transition
the uppercase T is unique due to its square-like terminal
unlike the other sharp letterforms, some letters transition in a smooth curve
the apeture of the lowercase e is ver low
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Who is Rudolph Wolf?
Born in 1895 in Hechingen Germany, Doctor Rudolph
Wolf was a prominent figure in the typography community
in the 1920s. This is due mostly to his creation
of the Memphis typeface that took the world by storm
at the very end of the decade in 1929.
After undergoing doctoral studies at the University of
Frankfurt, Wolf was responsible for designing type as
an advertising manager at D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt
from 1922 until his death in 1942.
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weight shown here is light but the typeface also comes in medium and bold
there is no contrast between stroke thickness
arm and leg angles differ
short central arm, unbracketed, and low contrast
there are no significantly defined terminals on letterforms
serif like crossbars on i and j
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