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The design of EB Ackerhof was initiated in 2017, and completed by Clément Le Tulle-Neyret in 2022—with the addition of a rotalic style in 2024—, following a visit to the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar. This establishment, implanted in a 13th-century convent, was delivered by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2015. The facade of the new building, called “Ackerhof” because of the former presence of a farm at the same location, is covered in brickwork that displays a varying repeating pattern, resulting from the irregularity of hand-broken bricks and their changing colors. This texture creates a systematic rhythm that paradoxically produces a series of organic sensations.

Transposed into type design, it is easy to imagine a link to monospace typefaces. But how might one evoke the singularity of such a texture while adhering to a principle of repetition?

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Detail from the wall and courtyard interior of the Ackerhof, an extension of the Unterlinden Museum, delivered in 2015 by Herzog & de Meuron.

The default set-width in design software like Glyphs is 600 units. This figure is then divided by two, thus producing a base value. The width of the letters in EB Ackerhof follows a pragmatic principle: the narrow glyphs (i, j, l) have a set-width of one unit, and the glyphs of an intermediate set-width are designed with a width of two units (n, a, r, etc.), whereas the design of the largest glyphs (m, w, Æ) takes up three units. Thus, the color and general rhythm give a false feeling of having a monospace typeface, while at the same time being very pleasant to read. Finally, some glyphs require an added unit, like fractions for example.

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Following the most logical approach possible, the letters of EB Ackerhof are designed on a grid that has been divided into ten. All of the points are then placed on this structure, excepting a number of cases where formal logic requires one to proceed in steps of five units.

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This practice of streamlining set-widths is not new. In 1883, American Linn Boyd Benton divided the quad of a new sign into six equal parts to establish his base unit. Each sign was then cut into a multiple of this unit; the i with a width of two units, the e with three, and the W with seven, with the majority of signs taking up four units.

The terminal forms of certain of *EB Ackerhof’*s glyphs, typically grotesque as with the letters r, a, and s, or completely flat, as with the letters f, j, and t, reinforce the irregular nature of its pattern.

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