Aktuell Display is Thomas Thiemich’s latest display serif design, that dives into the much-coveted traditional broad-nib contrast.

The original Aktuell text design is a story of smaller and bigger connections. Its design was originally commissioned by the German-based design agency ‘Lamm & Kirch’ in 2015, for the new corporate identity of Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig (HGB). ‘Lamm & Kirch’ sought a new typeface that would work along Akzidenz Grotesque BQ Light Extented, designed by the renowned German designer Gunther Gerard Lange. Lange, on his turn, was also educated at the same alma mater - HGB. The creative brief also required of the new typeface to relate to Timeless – a DDR-version of the Times New Roman, originally published by VEB Typoart – the well-known east German foundry that succumbed with the fall of Berlin Wall.

To add more serendipitous facts, from the late 1940s on, quite a few HGB graduates - including G. G. Lange - had worked for VEB Typoart. In fact, the two institutions had a special relationship and so Aktuell is thoroughly connected to both, the former DDR heritage and HGB in particular.

Aktuell text family is a typographic performer: an efficient design featuring short ascenders an descenders. These proportions make Aktuell most suitable design for composing compact text columns. Aktuell evokes a rather strict demeanour. It may even appear cold, or even rigid to some. But no matter how you look at it, its design features make a very reliable and determined impression – qualities praised in the artistic climate of HGB.

On the other hand, this slightly peculiar yet crystal clear determination is a quality wildly embraced nowadays. This presents Aktuell text family as a contemporary typeface that is not neglecting any of the traditional qualities required of a true text face, suitable for continuous reading. Yet, if you give it a closer look, it is not books you might envision typeset in Aktuell, but rather screen typography. For it excels in delivering an attractive evenness of colour and a remarkable readability and legibility in space-conscious environments.

On its turn, Aktuell Display is not a mere extension of the Aktuell text family – it's a masterful exercise of nurturing elegance, drawing expresive but highly functional strokes and outlines, and bringing the finest of contrasts into the mix. These qualities, and more, are the driving force behind the typographic tool that Aktuell Display is, one that aims to deliver a fresh yet fully mature and reliable typographic experience to its users. In tandem with Aktuell text, or paired to contrast a solid sanserif design, Aktuell Display will simply shine and deliver the typographic excellence sought by graphic and media designers alike. But that's not all: don't be afraid to step out of the box — try Aktuell Display in packaging and branding and you'll be swept off your feet by how high the typographic quality bar is set and trully works.

Aktuell Display is available in 5 weights of roman and italic designs: Blond, Normal, Medium, SemiBold, and Bold. Its character set includes lining and old style figures, standard and discretionary ligatures, fractions, superiors, inferiors, numerators and denominators, and case-sensitive punctuation. The fonts support the Latin Extended character set, which is a valuable tool for composing multilingual Latin-script text.

Aktuell Display fonts are available in OTF CFF, TTF, WOFF, and WOFF2 formats.