Power duos

Martin Wenzel and Jürgen Huber are the forces behind supertype. Hailing from Germany, Wenzel and Huber have extensive backgrounds in type and graphic design. They’ve designed typefaces for both custom clients and retail and worked as typography educators at the HTW University in Berlin. With ties to the Type Network extended family, we’re thrilled to welcome supertype aboard, as echoed by TYPETR’s Petr van Blokland. “Following Martin Wenzel for years as student, a designer in our studio, and later as a talent and dedicated colleague,” van Blokland says, “I’m happy to see him joining the Type Network family as a partner of supertype.”

They are certainly not short of ideas and the first typefaces they’ve brought to Type Network are proof of that. These are practical and stylish designs that can be adapted to the user’s needs and examples of their experience in custom type design where usability and personality are critical. Realist, designed by Martin Wenzel, stems from the dueling admiration of the construction and effectiveness of a simple Humanist Sans and the sturdiness of a traditional Grotesque, resulting in a combination of both worlds. Chosen as one of Typographica’s favorite typefaces in 2011, Realist is a workhorse with Roman and Italics in eight weights and three widths. The surprise is in the extensive character set, where alternate glyphs completely change the feel of the typeface, depending on the selection of stylistic set. It’s clear voice and flexible design are compatible with a wide range of applications where the message plays the leading role.

In the words of designer Jürgen Huber, “had Alexander Girard and Aldo Novarese teamed up to design a typeface, Scarlet might have been the result.” Inspired by the graphic language of the 1960’s, Scarlet is a top-heavy, slightly squarish Sans with a matching Script with a proper swing, making for a distinct, recognizable, and expressive typeface. Scarlet Wood adds the tactile feeling to complete the family. They bring warmth and a 1960s flair to designs that need to stand out. But don’t mistake it by a restrictive design, Scarlet has extended Latin support, along with small caps, ligatures, old style figures, and other glyph sets controlled via OpenType features.

“We’re both excited and grateful to join Type Network, for it’s a place that stands for great quality”, says Martin Wenzel. There’s lots more in store from supertype, but for now, we can’t wait to see how you put these two super families to use. Like all supertype fonts, Realist and Scarlet can be licensed 24/7—for print, web, mobile apps, and ePubs. are available for desktop, web, app. Webfonts may be tested for thirty days and desktop trials are available upon request. Have a licensing question? Get in touch. To stay current on all things supertype and Type Network, subscribe to Type Network News, our occasional newsletter featuring releases, foundry happenings, type and design events, and more.