Fregio Mecano (“mechanic ornament”) is a set of 20
geometric shapes for building letters and images. It was made in
Italy probably sometime in the mid-1930s and appears in a Nebiolo
specimen from 1939. The designer is unknown, but the author of
Modular Type suggests it could be Giulio da Milano who designed
both Fregio
Razionale, another modular typeface system, and
Neon
(Nebiolo, 1935), a conventional typeface with similar letterfroms
as Fregio Mecano.
Section Bold Condensed (Compugraphic, c. 1980s, used for the sample) is a digital
interpretation with ready-made glyphs. Luciano Perondi’s Tribasei
(Molotro, 2006) is a truly modular digital version. Mecano
Sans/Serif (Nonpareille, 2011) is a solid version.
In 2015,
Tipoteca Italiana and
Lino’s Type collaborated on the “Fregio Mecano (digital)
resurrection” project. The original elements More…
Fregio Mecano (“mechanic ornament”) is a set of 20 geometric shapes for building letters and images. It was made in Italy probably sometime in the mid-1930s and appears in a Nebiolo specimen from 1939. The designer is unknown, but the author of Modular Type suggests it could be Giulio da Milano who designed both Fregio Razionale, another modular typeface system, and Neon (Nebiolo, 1935), a conventional typeface with similar letterfroms as Fregio Mecano.
Section Bold Condensed (Compugraphic, c. 1980s, used for the sample) is a digital interpretation with ready-made glyphs. Luciano Perondi’s Tribasei (Molotro, 2006) is a truly modular digital version. Mecano Sans/Serif (Nonpareille, 2011) is a solid version.
In 2015, Tipoteca Italiana and Lino’s Type collaborated on the “Fregio Mecano (digital) resurrection” project. The original elements were scanned and then modeled into bronze with a special 3D printer.
Julien Mercier Nuovo Fregio Mecano is a variable font developed in 2017 in five different weights and three different heights for Studio Ard’s design of Tate Etc. issue 44.
