Typophile

Happy birthday, Hans Eduard Meier!

Florian Hardwig

I would like to announce Hans Eduard Meier’s 85th birthday on 30th December 2007. He still is in very good shape and works on his PC (Windows) daily from 6 till 11 am.

There are different birth dates of Hans in type history and also different spelling (Meyer) due to a mistake in the birth certificate (!). Anyway, the above infos are totally correct.

Hans Eduard Meier designed Syntax Antiqua (hot metal type at Stempel foundry 1968–72), and for the Federal Technical Institute in Zurich Barbedor, Syndor, Oberon, Barbetwo. Meier designed for Linotype LT Syntax, Letter, and Lapidar. Elysa is a type for E+F, they also worked with Hans on a new ‘Schulschrift’ [School script] for primary schools in Switzerland (www.Schulschrift.ch). The fonts ABC are available at E+F.
Meier wrote his standard work ‘Development of Script and Type’ (reprint by Syndor Press, now available at Niggli).

Hans has always been less known than other Swiss type designers. I’m sure he will be pleased receiving some greetings from one or the other from this list.
His address is:
H E M
Unterkirchen
8875 Obstalden
Switzerland
hem[ät]freesurf[dot]ch

Thankyou, and good wishes for a great New Year,

Erich Alb
Typographer
Cham/Switzerland

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Hans Eduard Meier’s fonts at FontShop and MyFonts

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Chris Lozos

Happy Birthday, Hans!

ChrisL

writingdesigning

Syntax was the typeface I used the first time I got to design a publication on my own. Self taught as a designer I knew relatively little about typefaces then. Syntax just looked the most appropriate of available choices.

Today, slightly better informed about typography, it feels really special to greet Hans Eduard Meier, the man who designed Syntax, on his birthday. Many happy returns of the day sir!

Btw, nearly a decade down that booklet continues to be in use, still doing its job rather well:


.

John Hudson

Hans Eduard Meier was walking ahead of me towards the venue for the Linotype Typotechnica in Heidelberg. I drew level with him as he paused at a red light, and together we observed the early morning road, devoid of any traffic whatsoever. I’d noticed in the preceding days that the Germans seemed very respectful of red lights, and never crossed the road against the light, so I thought I’d better wait for the light to change. Hans Eduard, the canny Swiss, turned to me and said ’Come on, we’re not children’, and headed off across the street. For the rest of the walk to the venue, we had a lovely chat about type design and FontLab, which he was just beginning to use. He’s a lovely man, and an admirable jaywalker.

Captured from web.archive.org on 31 Dec 2007. view this capture