About ITC Motter Sparta
In creating ITC Motter Sparta, Austrian designer Othmar Motter turned to the design of cars. “As we all know,” says Motter, “trends in car design affect many other fields of design in a way that shapes tastes.” Motter saw that the latest models were moving away from the soft lines of the ’90s toward the tense “New Edge“: “In this latest trend, sharp, clearly-defined edges meet broadly-drawn, dynamic curves and cut them off sharply.” In ITC Motter Sparta, the form of each character is distinct - so much so that Motter has achieved another goal, to make the typeface instantly recognizable from a single character. “The sharp straight strokes, cut off almost at right angles, and the strong cross-stroke curves, ending in points, form a charged contrast to the vertical and horizontal straight strokes that give Motter Sparta its taut framework,” he says. Motter paid particular attention to the interior space in each character, avoiding narrow, pointed forms that might clog up at small sizes. In some of the letters, especially A and a, the form is suggested rather than defined. The D and F take uncial forms, halfway between capitals and lowercase. The back curves on V and v, W and w, allow them to fit together next to other letters without awkward spaces. |
