Not even the great Morris Fuller Benton could resist the temptation to construct a square typeface. Georg Trump had led the way with City in 1930, followed by Aldo Novarese (33 Eurostile, 1962) and most recently – with great consistency – Achaz Reuss (FF QType, 2004) and Christian Schwartz (FF Oxide, 2005).

Morris Fuller Benton took inspiration from a late-19th-century gravestone, whose inscription he recorded by taking a rubbing. He created Bank Gothic as a typeface made exclusively of small capitals, which adds to the technical impression it creates.


Ice-cold Bank Gothic typography to suit the subject matter
©20th Century Fox

In February 2007, Linotype released a wonderfully reinterpreted and expanded version of Bank Gothic, Morris Sans, designed by Dan Reynolds under type director Akira Kobayashi. For the first time, the geometric typeface was available in three weights and two widths, with a lowercase and a great number of extras. The new typeface takes its name from its original “inventor”.


A useful reworking of Bank Gothic: Morris Sans by Dan Reynolds © Linotype