Aldo Novarese

Aldo Novarese (b. 29 June 1920 in Pontestura Monferrato – d. 16 September 1995 in Turin) was an Italian type designer who lived and worked mostly in Turin where he produced an impressive number of unique designs.

Training and career

After learning woodcutting, copper engraving, and lithography at the Scuola Arteri Stampatori] in Turin, Novarese worked as a draftsman at the Nebiolo type foundry. He became art director there in 1952. He taught at the Scuola Vigliardi Paravia for ten years beginning in 1948. By 1977, foundry type had become largely obsolete, and Novarese left Nebiolo to become a freelance designer.

Fonts designed by Aldo Novarese

Novarese designed a wide range of typefaces. His most famous design is probably Eurostile, a geometric sans-serif design. It utilized shapes based on subtly curved rectangles with rounded corners, reflecting the modern designs that were gaining popularity at the time, influenced by the subtly curved shape of a cathode ray tube screen or airplane windows. It became very popular as a typeface that evokes technology (it can be seen on the speedometers on many cars and vehicles, particularly older models). This was an expansion and development of the earlier design Microgramma typeface (designed in a project led by Alessandro Butti), an all-caps design.