Lucas de Groot (born in
Noordwijkerhout, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
), known professionally as Luc(as) de Groot, is a Dutch
type designer
Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.
A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...
.
He is the head of the type foundry Fontfabrik, also trading as LucasFonts.
De Groot is particularly known for the very large family
Thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...
(a
font superfamily with
sans-serif,
serif and
monospaced
A monospaced font, also called a fixed-pitch, fixed-width, or non-proportional font, is a font whose letters and characters each occupy the same amount of horizontal space. This contrasts with variable-width fonts, where the letters and spaci ...
designs),
Calibri
Calibri () is a digital sans-serif typeface family in the humanist or modern style. It was designed by Luc(as) de Groot in 2002–2004 and released to the general public in 2007, with Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista. In Office 2007, ...
, the longtime default font with
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a ma ...
, and
Consolas.
[Garfield, Simon]
''Just My Type: A book about fonts''
p. 329. Profile Books (UK), Gotham Books (US), 2010, pp.328-331. . De Groot is considered an expert on using
interpolative font design and
stylistic alternates to develop large families with a wide range of features and languages supported.
Biography
De Groot was born in the Netherlands and studied at the
Royal Academy of Arts in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...
. He adopted the name Luc(as) on his business card after graduating as a reference to people calling him by both "Luc" and "Lucas". After having worked for a few years at Amsterdam-based design agency BRS Premsela Vonk (since 2009 called
Edenspiekermann), De Groot moved to Berlin to work at MetaDesign under
Erik Spiekermann. Some of his early work included alternative versions of
Frutiger, which much of his work is influenced by.
While working at MetaDesign he began working on the Thesis family in his spare time, a project he described as being enabled by a lack of personal connections outside work.
Thesis was initially published by Spiekermann's
FontShop library before he established an independent company.
De Groot's work includes commercially released fonts and also custom families for particular clients: Corpid (previously AgroSans) for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture; SunSans for
Sun Microsystems; SpiegelSans and Taz for, respectively, the German magazines ''
Der Spiegel''
and ''
die tageszeitung''; and FolhaSerif for the Brazilian newspaper ''
Folha
''Folha de S.Paulo'' (sometimes spelled ''Folha de São Paulo''), also known as simply ''Folha'' (, ''Sheet''), is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded in 1921 under the name ''Folha da Noite'' and published in São Paulo by the Folha da Manhã co ...
''.
Some of these such as Taz have since become publicly available.
De Groot teaches at the Design Faculty of the
Fachhochschule Potsdam
The ''Fachhochschule Potsdam'' is a University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, the capital of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It was founded in 1991 and teaching began in the 1991/92 winter semester.
History
After the state of Bran ...
or University of Applied Sciences in
Potsdam, outside Berlin.
Fonts
Major fonts by de Groot include:
*
Thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...
: contains the
sans-serif TheSans, TheSans Mono and
serif designs TheMix and later TheAntiqua
* Taz for the newspaper
die Tageszeitung
* FolhaSerif
* SunSans, for
Sun Microsystems
*
Calibri
Calibri () is a digital sans-serif typeface family in the humanist or modern style. It was designed by Luc(as) de Groot in 2002–2004 and released to the general public in 2007, with Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista. In Office 2007, ...
, for
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
*
Consolas (2004, released 2007), for Microsoft
* Spiegel
As an amusement, de Groot also developed a number of parodic, spiky or distorted reworkings of Thesis, including Nebulae and JesusLovesYouAll.
References
External links
*
LucasFontsLucas de Groot's design bureau.
Typo International lecture, 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Groot, Lucas de
1963 births
Living people
People from Noordwijkerhout
Dutch typographers and type designers
Dutch graphic designers
Dutch emigrants to Germany
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni