LL Unica77

Unica77TM is the only digital version of Haas Unica authorised by the font’s original designers. Named after its authors, Team’77, it was redrawn by Christian Mengelt of Team’77 from their original drawings which formed the basis for Haas Unica, released for Bobst Graphic/Autologic systems in 1980.

Originally commissioned in 1973 by Switzerland’s Haas Type Foundry, Helvetica’s inventors, to circumvent Linotype’s embargo of it, Haas Unica was the direct result of a compara- tive study and rigourous analysis of four major modern Grotesk type- faces: Akzidenz Grotesk, Neue Haas Grotesk, Helvetica, and Univers. Primarily intended for phototype- setting, Haas Unica proposed an entirely new take on the genre. It had been designed to be super-neutral right from the outset, being both sharper than Helvetica, warmer than Univers, and cleaner than Akzidenz. Its sophisticated letterforms, sober character and economical propor- tions perfectly suit today’s require- ments for digital on-screen use.

The family’s encoding includes full support for Central and Eastern European languages. The character set is rich with features and stylistic sets, with a number of alternates and optional rounded punctuation.

The first instalment of Unica77TM re-issues the original four weights of Haas Unica (Light, Regular, Bold and Black, with their Italics), with three more weights (Thin, Medium, Extra Black, and Italics) scheduled for release by mid-2015.