Filmotype gem
New! Filmotype Gem (2011). Initially designed and released in the 1950s, this classic American gothic has been remastered and expanded in OpenType format. It is an “all caps” design that includes an extended international character set and automatic fractions and ordinals.
Filmotype Gem is the first of a range of compact sans serif fonts whose names begin with the letter “G” (a Filmotype convention) that, rather than follow the usual grotesque model, have more in common with Futura--the one-story a, the round dots, the simplified t and u. If there were such a thing as Futura Compressed, it would look a lot like this. Beyond such resemblances, Gem has its own unique characteristics, such as the prominent whip-lash spine on the S and its subtle hand-lettered feel. It all comes together in a face that has more character than you would expect in a compressed sans.
Filmotype was the earliest of the desktop headline setting machines, introduced in the mid-1950s, and popular in art studios throughout the U.S. for over a decade. A large library of faces was developed for the machine, and many of them have never been digitized. Filmotype Gem is one of many classic Filmotype fonts planned for revival, in cooperation with Filmotype’s founders. I’m excited to be helping to bring back some of these great faces.