Oskar is a all-caps type series inspired by Dutch architectural and commercial letterings from the early 20th century, particularly those painted on walls and shopfronts or executed in metal. This style of letters did not exist as printing type but was cultivated by sign painters, draftsmen and architects, and passed on in lettering manuals.
A first version of Oskar was initially drawn in 2002 for the lettering of a heritage-protected school in The Hague, designed by architect Jan Duiker in 1929. Since then, the family has been expanded into multiple styles and weights.
Oskar is available in two ‘flavours’ — One and Two — each in three weights, and each weight accompanied by an inline variant. Oskar One stands firmly in the tradition of Dutch 1920s lettering, with pointy apices and expressive, less conventional letterforms. Oskar Two is more tamed and regular, closer to classical geometric sans-serifs yet still exuding its relation to the Art Deco style. The carefully drawn (and manually hinted) inline styles highlight Oskar’s qualities as a versatile display and titling face, on screens as well as on façades.
Designer
Paul van der Laan
2002–2013
Oskar supports the following languages
Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Bosnian, Catalan, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Embu, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, German, Gusii, Hungarian, Icelandic, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jola-Fonyi, Kabuverdianu, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Meru, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Northern Sami, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Teso, Turkmen, Upper Sorbian, Vunjo, Walser, Welsh and Zulu.
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