Typeface Design for Lineto’s Schema Library Release
Built from memory as much as from original drawings
LL Schema is Alberto Malossi's reinterpretation of Permanent (1962, Ludwig & Mayer), a neo-grotesk by Karlgeorg Hoefer that found its main audience in Italian publishing via Officine Simoncini's hot-metal matrices. Developed from an ECAL MA assignment begun in 2019 and published by Lineto in 2026, the project required Malossi to reconcile a display version drawn from Simoncini's technical drawings with a text version reconstructed largely from memory. The resulting family of five weights, plus a variable version available on request, was used by M/M (Paris) for Harper's Bazaar Italia before its public release.
Set in LL Schema
Insights
- Malossi deliberately avoided original source material when balancing the weights, prioritising internal coherence over historical fidelity—addressing a consistency problem the original Permanent had always had.
- The design originated as a two-version exercise (display vs. text); a subsequently interpolated intermediate between those extremes—not either original endpoint—became the actual starting point for the final typeface.
- Font engineering and mastering was handled by Alphabet, Berlin; a variable version exists but is available only on request rather than as a standard retail offering.
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