Rowac-Schemel stool crowdfunding campaign
Many know of the legendary Bauhaus building Walter Gropius designed and the furnishings made by his students in collaboration for this purpose. But few know that when it came to choosing stools for the classrooms and workshops, Gropius deliberately chose the sturdy so called Rowac-Schemel stools from a small family-owned metal factory by the same name in the nearby town of Chemnitz, Germany. It’s exactly this stool that we’re bringing back to the market a century later, via Kickstarter.
We began this project by researching the brand’s nearly 60-year history, which began in 1888. Along the way, we came across various documents, including advertisements, brochures, and stationery. Along with various typography over the years, we noticed that Rowac had used an early sans serif font called Erbar-Grotesk. Coincidentally, this is the same font that is still used today for some street signs in East Berlin. The typeface has a minimalist character, while still retaining an approachable humanistic quality that other later sans serifs lost. We felt that this was the perfect match for Rowac, a brand known for its detailed yet simple industrial furniture.
But after finding out that the current offerings for Erbar Grotesk are extremely limited, we were thrilled to discover CJ Type’s Dunbar, a modern reinterpretation of the classic. The different x-heights of the High, Low, and Text versions allowed us to tailor Dunbar to our specific needs.
1 Comment on “Rowac-Schemel stool crowdfunding campaign”
A beautifully designed campaign. Congratulations to reaching the funding goal!
To clarify, the street signs in question don’t use a font, but are produced manually based on an alphabet template. This alphabet is similar to but not identical with Erbar-Grotesk. It was introduced before Berlin was separated, and continued in the Western part. In the Eastern part, though, it was soon after replaced by another model. When you come across an old enamel street sign in the Erbar-like style, you may assume you’re standing in what once was West Berlin.
See FF Cst Berlin West and FF Cst Berlin East for digital interpretations of the two (once) prevalent styles.