Linotype Ergo™ Font Family Typeface Story

Designer

Gary Munch

Foundry

Linotype

Overview Linotype Ergo was designed by American Gary Munch, and was a winner in Linotype's Second International Digital Design Contest in 1997. Conceived as a blend of traditional and modern type concepts, it works as a legible text family as well as a lively display or headline font. The word ergo means consequently," but it also comes from the Greek word "ergon" for "work." Consequently, Munch sees this family as full of energy -- an ideal font for working hard to make a point, and able to get it across with friendly vigor.

The strokes of the characters are carefully designed to accommodate the tendency of the eye to enlarge horizontals and perceive verticals as lighter. The lowercase forms have open, friendly counters and are enhanced by small quirks, such as the slightly leaning s and the wide t. The deep branching of curves from main strokes helps this humanist sans to be very readable at smaller sizes.

Linotype Ergo has four normal-width weights, five condensed weights, and two compressed weights - all with companion Italics! The family also includes a clever "Sketch" font for use in headlines, bringing the total number of font styles to 23.
Ergo is available with Greek and Cyrillic and as W2G fonts with Hebrew."

Classifications

Square Sans
Sans Serif
Display
Condensed
Decorative
Symbol