Neutral Typeface

Neutral began as Kai Bernau’s graduation project at KABK (the Royal Academy of Art), taking inspiration from typefaces that seem ageless, remaining fresh and relevant even decades after they were designed. It was constructed based on a set of parameters derived by measuring and averaging a number of popular 20th-century Sans Serif fonts.

Aware that there is no such thing as total neutrality, this typeface explores how the absence of stylistic associations can help the reader to engage with the content of a text.

Neutral has been used for numerous projects from books, magazines to websites, and the feedback from these applications helped spur this release. Today, almost a decade after it was originally designed, we are proud to launch an upgraded version of Neutral — completely redrawn, freshly screen optimised, more neutral than ever.

Selected books using Neutral, designed by Lust; Atelier Carvalho Bernau; Joost Grootens; Urs Lehni & Lex Trüb (from top to bottom).

The design process that created Neutral has been documented in this book, and the article ‘An Idea of a Typeface’.

I Read Where I Am: Exploring New Information Cultures, Valiz/Graphic Design Museum, Breda 2011, designed by Lust using Neutral