About
Maschek Grotesk
3 Families – 72 Fonts:
Standard
Condensed
ExtraCondensed
12 Weights in 3 Widths
plus Matching Italics
plus Small Caps
plus Variable Fonts
Released 2023
Designed by Stefan Biedermann
Maschek grotesk is a versatile and distinctive type family specifically designed for display and editorial use. It radiates a clear and reliable stability in accordance with a soft and warm appearance. Its letterform proportions and construction details result in a trustworthy and serious yet friendly personality – garnished with a pinch of humor.
While the heavy weights are perfectly suited for impactful display use, the well balanced text weights achieve remarkable legibility results. The large character set of 936 glyphs per style offers extended latin language support as well as various OpenType features such as small caps, case sensitive forms, 12 different figure sets, 9 stylistic sets, fractions, contextual alternates and many more.
Why Maschek?
»Maschek« is a specific Viennese term meaning something like »other« or »otherness«, deriving from the hungarian word »másik«. People in Vienna say someone comes from the »maschek-side« referring to the back side or the other side, or when things are done in a different way than expected.
It is also the name of an austrian comedy group, well-known for their absurd-grotesque satirical live voice-overs of tv-footage. Developed from hand-crafted letterings for their posters and flyers, this typeface is scheduled to become Maschek’s official »corporate typeface« in the near future, and will consequently be showcased in all of the comedians’ print-, web- and tv-broadcasting-publications.
Why Grotesk?
In German language use »grotesk« is the general term for sans serif typefaces (including, but not limited to »grotesques«). Furthermore the adjective »grotesk« means preposterous or bizarre, »[…], and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms …« (Wikipedia – grotesque)
These are attributes that match both, the comedians’ exploits – creating grotesque situations – , as well as how the letterforms are constructed: When you closely look at Maschek Grotesk’s curves you will notice that every curvature includes a corner somewhere. That’s just like squaring the circle. Grotesque, isn’t it? Similarily the typeface’s stems are neither soley angular nor rounded. Rather they have influences from both sides: the usual one and the »maschek-side«.
PDF Specimen
Language Coverage
Maschek Grotesk covers:
Latin, LatinExtended A, LatinExtended B
218 languages supported:
Abenaki, Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Amis, Anuta, Aragonese, Aranese, Aromanian, Arrernte, Arvanitic, Asturian, Atayal, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Basque, Belarusian, Bemba, Bikol, Bislama, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian Romanization, Cape Verdean, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Chickasaw, Cimbrian, Cofan, Cornish, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Delaware, Dholuo, Drehu, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Folkspraak, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz, Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Gikuyu, Gooniyandi, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean, Gwichin, Haitian Creole, Han, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hopi, Hotcak, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Interglossa, Interlingua, Irish, Istroromanian, Italian, Jamaican, Javanese, Jerriais, Kaingang, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kapampangan, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak, Karelian, Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kiribati, Kirundi, Klingon, Kurdish, Ladin, Latin, Latino Sine, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Maori, Marquesan, Marshallese, Meglenoromanian, Meriam Mir, Mirandese, Mohawk, Moldovan, Montagnais, Montenegrin, Murrinhpatha, Nagamese Creole, Nahuatl, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Ngiyambaa, Niuean, Noongar, Norwegian, Novial, Occidental, Occitan, Oshiwambo, Ossetian, Palauan, Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Qeqchi, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Sami Inari, Sami Lule, Sami Northern, Sami Southern, Samoan, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Seri, Seychellois, Shawnee, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Slovio, Somali, Sorbian Lower, Sorbian Upper, Sotho Northern, Sotho Southern, Spanish, Sranan, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tokelauan, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvaluan, Tzotzil, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Venetian, Vepsian, Volapuk, Voro, Wallisian, Walloon, Waraywaray, Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, Wikmungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xavante, Xhosa, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Zapotec, Zazaki, Zulu, Zuni
Cyrillic (Russian & Bulgarian) is in the works and will soon be part of an upcoming expansion of Maschek Grotesk.