The 1963 Buick
Contributed by Stephen Coles on May 12th, 2017. Artwork published in
.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Optima’s ‘1’ appears to be modified a bit, the entry stroke is longer than I know it.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au License: All Rights Reserved.
4 Comments on “The 1963 Buick”
This looks like the default form from the original metal version. At some point in history, Optima’s ‘1’ got a nose job. The comparison below shows Stempel’s foundry version, the digitization by Linotype/Adobe, and, for the sake of completeness, Optima nova.
The middle version — which has been bundled with Mac OS for years — unfortunately pairs the narrowed glyph with tabular spacing. This inevitably leads to gappy numbers.
Hermann Zapf is the designer.
Indeed Zapf is the designer of Optima. The note “Designers/Agencies: unknown” in the sidebar refers to this Buick catalog, though, not to the typeface. Typeface designers are listed on the typeface pages.
Thanks for the comparison, Florian. I think I like the Linotype/Adobe version best, despite the spacing issue. Very helpful!