Emil Rudolf Weiss

Emil Rudolf Weiss

Emil Rudolf Weiss was a very talented man who lived as a german designer and illustrator in the early 1900’s.  He was born in 1875 and died at the age of 67 in 1942.  There was a book about him published in 1931.  It was called “Der Schrift und Buchkünstler Emil Rudolph Weiß”.  It was a book about the broad scope of his works ranging from illustration to type.  

His work seems very medieval in nature and represents everything a dark german folktale would need with it’s font. Think Brother’s Grim.  Although it seems he’s designed fonts for churches and religious works as well.  Many of the names within his book are religious figures, such as St. John and St. Michael.  His illustrations are very archaic as well, even for the time period he lived in.  Which I’m not saying is wrong by any means, it’s just interesting.  As a personal note, I love ancient looking type, so this was an enjoyable project for me.  

It becomes a bit hard to tell what exactly he’s doing work for, as much of what’s written in within is in German.  Sadly that’s a language that is lost on me.  After doing some more research on him I found out that he was a teacher as well.  He was the king of gothic bold type, and most of his work showed that.  

The logos he has done are also pretty obviously gothic in nature.  Most of them are portrayed in simple line and bold strokes.  A great many of them are circular in nature, like seals or symbols.  The other half are more like a coat of arms, including a vast array of German symbols such as winged lions and griffons.

He made several fonts, two of which being Weiss Roman and Weiss Fraktur.  History dictates that he was a teacher as well, showing his techniques to many students over his lifetime.  

http://opentype.info/blog/2012/09/24/emil-rudolph-weiss/
http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-26202.html
http://www.identifont.com/show?6PS