Besucherausweis Kernkraftwerk Stadt Winden 1987
FF Trixie in use for the typewritten name on a visitor’s pass, spotted by the typeface’s designer Erik van Blokland. The badge was issued by the nuclear power plant of the City of Winden in 1987. The catch is, Trixie was first released in 1991. Is Erik a time traveller, too, just like Tronte Nielsen? Or is it actually typewritten? But why have all three e’s the same smudged eye then – just like in the original pre-OpenType Trixie? And why did the authorities in Winden still use such an outdated typewriter like the Durabel in the late 1980s? Also, what did they do when a visitor had a name with more than 16 or 17 characters, like Aleksander Tiedemann? The truth is out there.
The analog basis for the Trixie typeface: Glyph sets typed out on a Triumph “Durabel”, produced in Nuremberg sometime before 1957. The vintage typewriter was in the possession of a woman named Trixie (Beatrix in full), hence the name. The halfvet – Dutch for (semi)bold – was generated by hitting the keys with more force. The machine’s German origin is evident in the presence of umlauts (äöüÄÖÜ) and the eszett (ß), and also the now obsolete currency symbol DM for Deutsche Mark, which was in use from 1948 until 2002, when it was superseded by the Euro (€).
