Brigade to Antiqua

Nothing has amused me more recently than the official pomposity accompanying the presentation of the Brygada 1918 font. It is an electronic version of a previously unknown typeface, discovered in 1945 among the ruins of the pre-war Jan Idźkowski i S-ka font foundry. Brygada 1918 is to become – according to President Andrzej Duda – “a symbol of the reborn Republic of Poland” and to reach the home, i.e. be widely used in Word.

Here we have in a nutshell the officially created historical policy: pomp, pomposity and lack of historical knowledge. Without taking anything away from the 1918 Brigade (well, maybe apart from the very pretentious name), it must be said that the symbol of the reborn Republic existed in typography and was commonly used for many years.

The postulate of creating a national font had (and still has) a purely typographic justification. Simply adding "tails" to foreign magazines does not reflect the character of the Polish language, which negatively affects the shape of the designed pages. Joachim Lelewel wrote that "texts in different languages, French, German or Polish, set in the same font, will look different in each case. […] Neither French nor German fonts are suitable for our language. So we need our own font." However, the turbulent history did not allow for the creation of native fonts. Therefore, almost at the dawn of Independence, in 1921, the need to create a national Polish font was articulated in the pages of the magazine "Grafika Polska." The project took on a specific form at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. I am of course talking about the font created in the 1920s by Adam Jerzy Półtawski.

Półtawski, one of the most renowned pre-war graphic artists, creator of, among others, a series of Polish banknotes in the early 1920s, worked on the Polish font for several years. It was not until 1931 that the letters were first cast in the Idźkowski foundry. His work immediately became popular in Poland and was widely used in Polish typography until the 1960s. Jan Muszyński, without exaggeration, simply titled his book devoted to Półtawski's work: Antykwa Polska Adama Półtawskiego (Polish Bibliophile Society, Warsaw 1931).

In cooperation with the then English tycoon Monotype, a version was also created for sale abroad under the Poltawski brand 394 (antiqua) and 398 (bold version). Although, to be honest, it is hard to call it a great success: in the end, only a dozen or so sets of Polish fonts found buyers. This may be partly explained by the fact that Monotype probably did not attach much importance to it. An italic version was never created, and individual sizes were released on the market for a dozen or so years (the last in May 1952).

Today, there is an electronic version of Antykwa Półtawskiego created in the late 90s by Bogusław Jackowski, Janusz M. Nowacki and Piotr Strzelczyk. Thanks to the use of archival materials provided by Monotype, it was possible to faithfully recreate the typeface once designed by Półtawski. What's more, it is available online for free. And - if I'm not mistaken - the project was created thanks to private funds and passion.

In conclusion: let us respect our own history and not rewrite it.

Photo from: http://www.artur-nowakowski.pl