I am looking for the font used for the stud of a LEGO brick.
For example the font in this image:
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2Seems to be a variation of ISO 3098 lettering standard. Note that this text is from 60's and is most likely something they made manually – joojaa Dec 29 '16 at 7:16
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5I assume it would not be a font at all, but a logo that is custom made for the Lego company. – Summer Dec 29 '16 at 15:11
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To find out such specific information about a product you can always contact the manufacturers directly - you will find that someone is more than happy to help if you get hold of the right person. There will be someone who loves geeking out on such matters if you contact LEGO in Denmark. Simply write them an email > contact found here – Mark Read Jan 3 '17 at 22:37
My best guess: Pragmata Pro Italic.
I tried several font identifying sites. They found about 100 more or less resembling candidates, but only in Pragmata Pro Italic all four characters matched.
To get any results I had to stretch your photo to compensate the tilted camera angle. Acceptable contrast was achieved by overdrawing the text. Fortunately only straight lines and simple arcs were needed.
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4It may match but it still is way too new to be the same font. Altough most likely originally not a computer font at all – joojaa Dec 29 '16 at 7:31
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Maybe the creator of Pragmata Pro Italic has got some inspiration from his playing with LEGOs. Anyway, the original questioner can get consistent texts after buying that font. Unfortunately there seems to be no public domain alternatives easily available. – user287001 Dec 29 '16 at 16:36
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Even if this isn't the exact font, it's a very close match and I think that's good enough considering it may be a custom or handmade font as some comments have speculated. – Ambo100 Dec 29 '16 at 17:38
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It's in the ballpark but definitely not the same font. The LEGO logo on the studs uses a much squarer typeface. – DA01 Dec 29 '16 at 19:34
The example pictured above is considered a modern stud logo that dates back to as early as 1963 and is still in use today. The logo itself may have some correlation to the manufacturing switch from cellulose acetate (CA) to the more stable and non-toxic acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, which additionally could be easily injection molded to more exacting tolerances than CA. In other words, more accurate molding may have opened the doors to molding such a light, modern typeface and relatively elegant detail. More discussion on this topic is probably more appropriate for the LEGO® Answers Forum but now that we're armed with some historical context, we can start to narrow down a time period to find a suitable font, or in this case, the typeface that the logo is derivative of (I'm in agreement with some of the earlier comments that this is indeed a logo and not a specific typeface).
Some other stylistic influences to keep in mind:
- LEGO® is a European based company
- Predominate graphic design trends in the 1960s
(Swiss Style, minimalism, modernism, reliance on typographic forms, etc.)- Mid-century modernism and the rise of the clean sans-serif
Keeping all of this in mind, my best guess for the LEGO® stud logo would be a modified version of Directors Gothic 210 Light Oblique:
Terminal of the G is a little longer in Directors Gothic and there seems to be a slight rounded quality to the letters in the molded version (possibly an unintended side effect of the manufacturing process on such a fine detail). Nonetheless, Directors Gothic was historically in existence and in use when these bricks were produced and it fits the clean, modern design styles that were prevalent in the 1960s.
Here's what MyFonts.com has to say about this font family:
Handcrafted by Lettering Inc as part of its core library of typefaces in the 1930s, Directors Gothic was dramatically expanded throughout the lifetime of the company and remains a timeless classic. Inspired by the Art Deco movement popular at the time of its creation, Directors Gothic was designed with an eye toward expanded utility for use in advertising headline and smart corporate materials.
Design date: 1938, (digitally revived in 2013)
References:
answered Jan 3 '17 at 20:19
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This has more right (=shorter) spaces between letters. Also the documented birthday conforms. But slanting angle, middle part of E and the top end of G do not fit. I'm starting to believe that the on-stud LEGO text is designed as an single element, not a combination of 4 letters of some well-known font.. But before to leave this into state "let it be", it would be interesting ro see a catalog of in 1962-63 available lettering quide plates. – user287001 Jan 4 '17 at 3:07
