On April 8, 1948 a certain Walter Plaga wrote a crude poem about a hero on a commemorative plaque. The very poor reproduction of the handwritten original, etched into a metal sheet, produced extremely abstract forms so that — even if unintentional — a script completely void of bowls was created.

That which originally was the normal clumsy handwriting of a layman thus transformed into a pseudo-modern deconstructive typeface, which in the 21st century appears contemporary. The capital letters especially reflect the original: in part they show forms labeled incorrectly ”old German“ handwriting, which is actually Latin, in the letters A D G I J K L S V W X Z , whereas C H N O P R appear very modern.

Truly a form of handwriting: without joining the letters, especially between the lower case characters, a silhouette effect is formed. To a great extent Hero is impressive due to its driven-to-the-limit abstraction and to a lesser extent by retaining an antiquated and nearly illegible effect.

In honor of its introduction, Hero is available for free — the complete unlimited original typeface including all special symbols, accents, umlauts and numerals.

Grab it while you can before we change our minds!