Ismar David

citation for the United Jewish Appeal, NY, 1980

Born in Germany in 1910, Ismar David studied at the Berlin Municipal school of Arts and Crafts and immigrated to Israel in 1932 where he opened a studio for graphic and interior design. in 1953 moved to New York, where he established his studio specializing in calligraphy, lettering, illustration and book design. David also taught calligraphy at the Cooper Union till 1991.

broadside RN Magazine, NJ, 1971

In 1953 Ismar David released one of the most important Hebrew typefaces, David:

David Hebrew font family, 1954

Zapf wrote about him: The work of Ismar David can always be identified by his characteristic style. [...] His expressive drawings, with their undulating linear quality and unusual construction, show his elegant style in every detail.

Peace Blessing, poster, 1976

Fontef

Cartonnage Typeface and Notebooks

Yanek Yontef, a graduate and former teacher at Bezalel academy of art and design, is an important figure in contemporary Hebrew typography. His fonts are seen everywhere across Israel; newspapers, signage, advertisement, branding, posters etc. Yontef's importance is due not only to the large variety of interesting contemporary typefaces he has designed (both Hebrew and Latin), but also in his teaching he pioneered the typography and lettering methodology at Bezalel(former students are, among others, Oded Ezer and Danny Meirav [Hatayas, Hagilda]).

Pauza and Pauza Latin

Fontef (Yontef's one man type foundry) has a well-designed website (both in Hebrew and English versions) that showcase his great designs. Notice his bilingual families such as Pauza - the latin font has some of the harsh geometries taken from hebrew while the hebrew font has some more roundness at the corners of the letter; both typefaces balance out each other and potentially allow to a good combination of English and Hebrew text.

Strauss

Hagilda - Independant Type Design Cooperative

The Smoker Serif

Hagilda (The Guild) is an Israeli type foundry (or as they like to define themselves- type design cooperative) of prominent designers Michal Sahar and Danny Meirav, both Bezalel graduates from the late 90’s and each runs his/her own independant design studio.

Palestina by Oded Ezer

Blender Condensed

Almost all of their font families are revivals of known Hebrew typefaces (such as Haim, Aharoni, Meriam) which have become default to us israeli Microsoft Word users (the equivalent to times new roman, if i may say so myself). Hagilda brings the joy back to older Hebrew typography and makes me, at least, pay more attention to the minutiae in such ancestors. Another aspect they express is vernacular or signage inspired typography, such as the poppy and fun Glass of Milk and Kartiv (Popsicle). Looking through the catalog really gives you a sense of the design culture, and therefore popular culture, that developed in the short history of Israel.

Kartiv

A Glass of Milk