Auriol is a

display typeface A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use at large sizes for headings, rather than for extended passages of body text. Display typefaces will often have more eccentric and variable designs than the simple, relatively restrained ...

created by

George Auriol George Auriol, born Jean-Georges Huyot (26 April 1863, Beauvais ( Oise) – February 1938, Paris), was a French poet, songwriter, graphic designer, type designer, and Art Nouveau artist. He worked in many media and created illustrations for the c ...

in 1901 for the

G. Peignot et Fils G. Peignot et Fils foundry (Fonderie G. Peignot et Fils) was a French typographic foundry, established in 1898 and closed down between 1919 and 1923 after a merger to become Deberny & Peignot foundry. Led by Georges Peignot (1872–1915), G. ...

foundry in Paris. George Auriol has been called the "quintessential

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Moder ...

designer" according to Steven Heller and Louise Fili. The letterforms he designed for his namesake

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands ...

originated in Française-légère and Française-allongée, two other fonts he designed for G. Peignot et Fils. All three typefaces are distinguished by brush-like, unconnected strokes influenced by

Japanese calligraphy also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intri ...

. Auriol became a popular typeface in Europe and America in the early 20th century and was widely used as display type in books,

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. ...

s, and in the

applied arts The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Unive ...

. It also was adopted for signage at

Paris Métro The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architec ...

stations. In 1979, during the revival of interest in the Art Nouveau period,

Matthew Carter Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is a British type designer.A Man of Letters

expanded the range of weights for Auriol by creating bold and black versions based on the original designs. Auriol is currently a trademark of

Linotype GmbH The Mergenthaler Linotype Company is a corporation founded in the United States in 1886 to market the Linotype machine (), a system to cast metal type in lines (linecaster) invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. It became the world's leading manufactur ...

, a subsidiary of

Monotype Corporation Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use wit ...

,Linotype: ''History''
/ref> and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Notes

External links

Linotype: ''Auriol''
complete set of the nine fonts and ornaments (copyright holder's website) Typesetting Typography Letterpress typefaces Photocomposition typefaces Digital typefaces Art Nouveau typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1901 Serif typefaces {{design-stub