Ludwig & Mayer

Schriftgießerei Ludwig & Mayer

Type	Defunct
Industry	Type foundry
Founded	1875
Founder	Carl Jacob Ludwig
Defunct	1984
Headquarters	Germany
Key people	Karlgeorg Hoefer, Jakob Erbar, Helmut Matheis

Ludwig & Mayer was a German type foundry in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Many important designers worked for the Ludwig & Mayer type foundry, including Heinrich Jost, Karlgeorg Hoefer, Helmut Matheis, and most notably Jakob Erbar, whose Erbar Book was one of the first geometric sans-serif typefaces, predating both Paul Renner's Futura and Rudolf Koch's Kabel by some five years. Starting in 1925, Ludwig & Mayer types were distributed in the United States by Continental Type Founders Association. When the foundry ceased operations in 1984, rights to the typefaces was transmitted to the Neufville Typefoundry.

Typefaces

These foundry types were produced by Ludwig & Mayer:

House Faces

• Allemannia Fraktur (1908), later digitized by Mew Varissara Ophaswongse (2018)
• Allright (1936)
• Altenburger Gotisch (1928)
• Bastard Mediaeval
• Beatrice (1931)
• Behrens
• Chic
• Cochin (1922)
• Commerciale
• Die Mode (1914-1915)
• Diplomat (1964), later digitized as Diploma by Hans van Maanen (2009)
• Excelsior (1914), a script face
• Firmin Didot (1929), a version Didot.
• Hallo (1956)
• Kombinette (1932)
• Kupferplatte (1950)
• Largo (1939)
• Luminous
• Magnet (1951)
• Manolo, an art nouveau faced revived by Ralph Unger as RMU Manolo (2019)
• Nelson (1902), an art nouveau face.
• Samson Script
• Wren

Designer Faces

• Achtung (1932, Erhard Grundeis), a heavy script face.
• Aeterna (1927, Heinrich Jost), also known as Jost Mediaeval and offered for machine composition by Intertype (Berlin).
• Allegro (1936, Hans Bohn)
• Altenburger Gotisch (1928, Hans Wagner), a fraktur face.
• Antiqua die Schlanke (1938/9, Walter Höhnisch)
• Augenheil (1908, Richard Ludwig)
• Big Band (1974, Karlgeorg Hoefer)
• Brigitte (1935, Albert Christoph Auspurg)
• Candida (1936, Jakob Erbar), offered for machine composition by Linotype (Frankfurt).
  • Candida Italic (1937, Walter Höhnisch)
• Charleston (1967, Hace Frey), an updating of a Victorian display face.
• Charme (1957/8, Helmut Matheis), a calligraphic face.
  • Slogan (1959, Helmut Matheis), a bold version of Charme, not to be confused with the Nebiolo type foundry’s face of the same name.
• Colonia (1938/9, Walter Ferdinand Kemper) an early humanist sans.
• Compliment (1965, Helmut Matheis), an angular vertical script.
• Contact (1968, Imre Reiner), not to be confused with the American Type Founders face of the same name.
• Dominante (1959, Johannes Schweitzer), offered for machine composition by Simoncini SA (1962) .
• Domino (1959, Alfred Riedel), a fat face.
• Dynamo (1930, K. Sommer)
  • Motor (typeface) (1930, K. Sommer), an engraved version of Dynamo.
• Elegance (1968, Karlgeorg Hoefer)
• Erbar-Grotesk (1922-30, Jakob Erbar), many faces in this series were also offered for machine composition by Linotype.
  • Lucina ( Jakob Erbar), a reverse version of Erbar.
  • Lumina ( Jakob Erbar), an outline version of Erbar.
  • Lux (Jakob Erbar), an engraved inline version of Erbar
  • Phosphor (Jakob Erbar), an inline version of Erbar.
• Express (1952, Walter Höhnisch), a script face.
• Feder Grotesk + Fett Feder Grotesk + Feder Italic (1910, Jakob Erbar)
• Germroth-Deutsch (1935, G. Germroth), a blackletter face.
• Headline (1964, Karlgeorg Hoefer)
• Hoelderlin (1937/8, Eugen Weiss), blackletter face.
• Koloss (1923, Jakob Erbar)
• Kombi (1930, Karl Hermann Schaefer)
• Krimhilde (1934, Albert Christoph Auspurg)
• Lyrisch (1907, Georg Schiller)
• Matheis Mobil (1960, Helmut Matheis), a formal script.
• Mona Lisa (1930, Albert Christoph Auspurg)
• National (Fraktur) (1933/4, Walter Höhnisch)
• Prägefest (1926, Paul Eduard Lautenbach)
• Primadonna (1956, Helmut Matheis), a formal script.
• Professor-Krause-Fraktur (1930, Wilhelm Krause), a blackletter.
• Rasse (1924, Albert Christoph Auspurg)
• Reichert-Gotisch (1930’s, Joshua Reichert)
• Rhapsodie (1949-51, Ilse Schüle), a modern romanization of a Schwabacher blackletter.
• Schlanke + Bold + Semibold (1939, Walter Höhnisch), known outside Germany as Slender.
• Schräge National (1933/4, Walter Höhnisch)
• Skizze (1935, Walter Höhnisch), a script face also known as Sketch.
• Stereo (1968, Karlgeorg Hoefer)
• Stop (1939, Walter Höhnisch), a dry-brush script face.
• Symphonie (1945, Imre Reiner), a highly flourished script sold outside of Germany as Stradivarius.
• Welt (1931, Hans Wagner), a slab serif made in at least five weights. Also known as Luxor, Landi (1939-43 Nebiolo Foundry with additional variations by Alessandro Butti and Aldo Novarese)), Ramses (Fonderie Typographique Française), and Atlas (Amsterdam Type foundry), it was also offered for machine composition by Linotype.
• Welt-Fraktur (1910, Lorenz Reinhard Spitzenpfeil)
• Werbekraft (1926, Arthur Schulze)
• Werk-Fraktur (1918, Lorenz Reinhard Spitzenpfeil)
• Werbeschrift Deutsch (1933, Walter Höhnisch)
• Wolfram (1930, Hans Wagner), a heavy upright italic.

Licensed Faces

The following faces were originally faces cut for line-casting by Simoncini SA.

• Armstrong (1970, Francesco Simoncini)
• Aster or Aster Simoncini (1958, Francesco Simoncini), a newspaper font in several weights with matching italics.
• Life (1965, Francesco Simoncini), a newspaper and book font in several weights with matching italics.
• Permanent (1962, Karlgeorg Hoefer) a display font made in at least six weights.
• Simoncini Garamond (1958-61, Francesco Simoncini + W. Bilz), a recutting of Garamond.

External links

• Ludwig + Mayer at MyFonts