Duplicate, drawn from memory

When it was first introduced, Antique Olive was a departure from the grotesks popular in mid-twentieth century Europe, and remains evocative of France in the 1960s and 70s.1 Sadly, this typeface does not command the same esteem the US: bundled with vinyl cutting systems for sign making, it was condemned to decades of being stretched and squeezed on cheap plastic signs in every corner of the country, from small towns to urban neighborhoods. These strong associations make it difficult to use in a contemporary context without looking ironic or kitschy. Like Cooper Black and ITC Souvenir—also fantastic but ubiquitous to the point of kitsch—the typeface was overshadowed by its own baggage.

After reviving Neue Haas Grotesk for the Guardian, working on the ultra-rational humanist Guardian Sans, and drawing the initial width of Graphik, Schwartz felt drawn to the liveliness of Antique Olive, as a counterpoint to the systematic sans serifs he had spent the last few years drawing. He was fascinated by the way its seemingly disparate, top-heavy letterforms formed cohesive word shapes. With Excoffon’s creation as his starting point, Schwartz drew the typeface from memory, as an exercise, fully expecting to discard the result. He was dubious whether this could be a route to something that felt contemporary and new, suspecting the output would be nothing more than a pale imitation of the original. He was curious to see what he would remember correctly and what he would get wrong, and what relationship would exist between the inspiration and the result.

In spite of structural similarities like the shared large x-height and top-heavy contrast, and a handful of details Schwartz managed to recreate with some accuracy, such as the sweeping curve of the bowl of the lowercase a, and the modeled top of the lowercase t, what he ended up drawing could not be considered a revival, but rather a contemporary homage to Excoffon with a personality all its own. Schwartz was surprised by some of the differences, such as the hallmark wide flares on the c, e, and s terminals in Antique Olive which become thin, tapering endings in Duplicate. The display face went through a few iterations, named Clouseau, then Zizou, before Duplicate Sans was finally finished four years later for Florian Bachleda’s 2011 redesign of Fast Company. While its default spacing is intended for display, its large x-height means that it also works well for text when given adequate tracking.

In 2018, Miguel Reyes (who began contributing to the collection in 2013 with Ionic, see below) and Schwartz drew Duplicate Sans Condensed. Similar to Antique Olive Condensed, this editorially efficient companion first debuted in the Vault before its belated official release in our library in 2022.

Bachleda wanted a slab companion for the sans, so Schwartz took the most direct route. Following the example of popular twentieth-century slab serifs like Memphis, Stymie, and Rockwell, which are geometric sans with slabs tacked on, he added slabs to the Sans in the same straightforward manner. Doing as little as he could to alter the proportions, contrast, and stylistic details in the process, Duplicate Slab perfectly harmonizes with Duplicate Sans.

Because its skeleton is neither geometric nor traditionally humanist, Duplicate Slab’s warm and informal texture is atypical for a slab serif. The lightest weights are charming and lithe, while the heaviest weights are almost vehement in their friendliness. Like the Sans, the Slab is first and foremost a display face, but its warm, organic forms make it function well for short blocks of text. With additional tracking, it works well for captions and subheads, and is also suitable on screen for navigational elements.

Schwartz’s first idea for a serif face to match Duplicate Sans had been less straightforward—he saw an affinity between the organic shapes of Antique Olive and the strong, warm tone of Clarendon. Better known as Ionic, this genre is recognizable by its hallmark bracketed serifs and ball terminals. Even after finishing Duplicate Slab, the Ionic sketches seemed to have potential to bring both a proper text face and a softer display face to the collection.

With roots in nineteenth-century Britain, Ionics have long been a common choice for text in newspapers. Duplicate Ionic is no exception: it was first used in the German-language Swiss newspaper Neue Züricher Zeitung am Sonntag in a 2013 redesign by Mark Porter and Simon Esterson. The romans are a collaboration between Schwartz and Reyes, and the italic is fully Reyes’s creation, departing from the sloped romans seen in Duplicate Sans and Slab with a true cursive.

The process of creating Duplicate Soft and Round started when Reyes and Schwartz were talking about ways to make the Duplicate collection even more useful for editorial and branding projects. Both designers felt that having a rounded version of Duplicate Sans would give more options for friendly and contrasting text in magazine layouts and digital editorial applications. With rounded stroke endings and a friendly, soft appearance, it feels appealing without looking childish, even in the zaftig Black weight. Duplicate Soft can be combined with other styles of Duplicate when a casual, but still sophisticated, look is needed for branding, user interfaces, or editorial design.

With Duplicate Round, Reyes and Schwartz tried something different. In the thinner weights of a typical rounded sans serif, like Soft, the roundness is difficult to discern because there is not enough thickness in the strokes. To make this rotundity more noticeable, they came up with an unusual solution: ball terminals. Usually only applied to serif typefaces, the solution isn’t obvious but brings the friendly and cheerful effect of rounded strokes to the lightest weights. The ball terminals follow the traditional placement seen in serif typefaces, such as the terminals of the s or the top of the c and double-storey a. This allows Duplicate Round to feel “rounder than round”.