Geigy is inspired by graphic design produced in Switzerland in the decade before the global success of Helvetica and Univers eclipsed much of the aesthetically less standardised work of the era.

Robert Huber was particularly intrigued by the title lettering of a corporate periodical for Geigy, Switzerland’s leading pharmaceutical company in the post-war era. The publication’s masthead, ‘Geigy Berater’ (translating as ‘Geigy Consultant’), and its layout were created by Karl Gerstner in 1953. More hand-drawn and custom-made applications in a similar whimsical style are found throughout the 1950s in posters, signage, logos, book covers and printed matter from various designers operating in Basel, and across Switzerland.

The playfully dynamic and extravagant curves of these shapes form an eccentric counterpoint to the usually sober and austere sans-serifs of the era. A pronounced thick-thin contrast and tightly closed letterforms with horizontal terminals, paired with compact metrics, became the backbone and starting point of the design for LL Geigy. Robert dedicated more than three years to the detailed elaboration of his rendering, and the family currently consists of four weights with italics, including some sets of alternates. Thanks to a sophisticated balance between proportions, dimensions, metrics and the particular shapes of individual letters, LL Geigy offers a high level of recognition for titles, while fully responding to functional criteria when used in small.

Two monospaced weights to complement the family, lead Robert into largely uncharted territory. Monospaced sans serifs with pronounced contrast are unusual, as some of the rounded upper-case shapes become even more conspicuous when narrowed, while some lower-case letters become even more curvy through the widening. Again, Robert succeeded to fuse an experimental approach with sustained functionality, paying homage to a free-spirited aspect of mid-century typography from Switzerland which hasn’t yet found much recognition. A variable, duplexed version of LL Geigy is in the making and is already available per request.