Aachen™ is a heavy-stroked slab serif font designed by Alan Meeks under the supervision of Colin Brignall and released by Letraset in 1969. Aachen is a very bold typeface with heavy strokes and stubby serifs which make it very readable when used on book covers in headlines and posters.
Aachen History
The swinging 60’s was a time of great change in the world. The explosion of advertising heightened the need for typefaces that work well at large sizes. Brignall designed Aachen with this in mind, producing a design that is highly usable for poster designs, advertising headlines and other display uses.
Colin Brignall was initially a fashion designer and joined Letraset in 1964 as a photographic technician having been in the fashion trade and a press photographer. Although not hired as a type designer, he had a keen interest in artwork and typography and set about working on his second font (his first font was named Countdown, released in 1965). The original issue of Aachen was only in 5 font styles; in 1977 the font was extended to the current 15 styles. Subsequent releases have been made to offer greater language support.
Aachen Usage
The heavy strokes and sharp outlines make fonts from the Aachen typeface very usable for poster production and anywhere that bold headlines are needed; especially in sizes above 24 point. Aachen is also very suitable for strong looking book titles. The style of the Aachen typeface, being very bold and heavy, is best utilized with close kerning.
