Although FF Quadraat is a digitally created typeface, its starting point were drawings made by Fred Smeijers in his design studio of the same name. The font was intended to look new, but to draw on established models such as Garamond, Times and Plantin. Its italics, on the other hand, are highly idiosyncratic and original.



Sketches for an extraordinary italic font: Quadraat Italic

It was not until 1997 that Smeijers added a sans-serif version to the Quadraat family. In doing so, he continued a Dutch tradition which began in 1930 when Jan van Krimpen removed the serifs from his typeface Romolus. Martin Majoor (FF Scala) and Lucas de Groot (Thesis) later did the same.