Martin Majoor - Type Design - FF Scala and FF Scala Sans

FF Scala and FF Scala Sans

In 1988 Majoor started working as a graphic designer for the Vredenburg Music Centre in Utrecht. The design département of this concert hall was one of the first in the Netherlands to use an Apple Macintosh computer for its printed matter. The fact that there were only 16 typefaces available without features like old style figures, small caps and ligatures, made Majoor decide to make his own typeface. The result was Scala, one of the first Macintosh fonts with all these missing features.

In 1991 he was asked by Erik Spiekermann of FontShop International in Berlin to release FF Scala as its first serious text face in the FontFont Library. In 1993 FF Scala was augmented with a sans-serif version, FF Scala Sans. The sans and the serif versions complement each other, they follow the same principle of form but are two distinct designs. Both FF Scala and FF Scala Sans have become successful throughout the world.

In 1996 Majoor designed FF Scala Jewels, a quartet of classic decorative typefaces based on the capitals of FF Scala Bold. In 1998 the Scala family was augmented with 13 new versions, such as Scala Sans Light, Scala Sans Black and several condensed versions. FF Scala Hands contains several printer’s fists or manicules, based upon a design by Bruce Rogers from 1933.