Origin of the Glasgow (Typeshop Serial) typeface

[Joshua K.]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Dear Typophiles!

I recently stumbled upon the Glasgow typeface:

I think it’s really neat, so I would like to find out where it originally comes from.

It’s sold by Elsner & Flake as part of their “Typeshop Collection”, which, as it seems, is the former Quick Brown Fox “Serials Typecollection”, which is the former Brendel & Pabst “Serial Type Collection”.

Softmaker sells it, too (as “Glasgow Serial”), as does Red Rooster in two versions (stating on MyFonts it originates from Quick Brown Fox).

While most Brendel & Pabst typefaces are modelled after typefaces from other foundries, I couldn’t find out anything about Glasgow. Could this be a Brendel & Pabst original?

I hope someone can shed light on this!

Thanks in advance — Joshua

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/ef-typeshop/glasgow/
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/softmaker/glasgow-serial/
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/redrooster/glasgow-rr/
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/redrooster/glasgow-pro/

[clauses]

It's perhaps Erik Spiekermann's 1999 typeface for Glasgow http://spiekermann.com/en/glasgow-’99-typeface/
I can't find good samples of it to compare with.

FF Govan should be the commercial version of it – and it is similar – but the g is completely different.

[luc]

Claus:

It seems that the Brendel / Softmaker / Infinitype is from ca. 1993. It was based on Georg Salden's Polo from
1973. On the connection between Polo and Spiekermann (and I am NOT taking sides), read this German wiki:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_GST_(Schriftart)

That may explain some of the design elements of the corporate Glasgow face by Spiekermann. But again,
I have no crystal ball, and there are many differences between all the faces mentioned in the wiki and in this thread.

Hope you're doing well,

Luc

[Joshua K.]

Thanks for your replies.

On the old Quick Brown Fox website, Glasgow Regular was offered as a free download. The site including the download is available in the Internet Archive, see e.g.:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080302224520/http://www.qbf.de/tceng.htm

In this Glasgow Regular file, the copyright information reads:
(C) 1993 B & P Graphics, Ltd.

This could of course mean that the typeface existed before and was digitized in 1993.

It seems to be evident that Glasgow is based on Polo, but the typefaces are different (Polo on top):

On the Elsner & Flake website I found the following about Brendel’s typefaces:

The typographer and founder of the TypeShop Group* Walter Florenz Brendel (1933-1992) ordered the development of exclusive phototypesetting typefaces in the 70s and the beginning of the 80s for the phototypesetter he himself built, “Unitype”, which had their basis partially in historical but also in contemporary designs.

If Glasgow was made in the mentioned period, it must have been made shortly after the publication of Polo, which was developped 1972–1976 (according to Georg Salden).

So maybe it was made by an unknown employee of Brendel or Walter Brendel himself.

I’m eager to read it if someone knows more about the case.

[Uli]

> Polo, which was developped 1972–1976 (according to Georg Salden).

Both Götz Gorissen and Bernd Möllenstädt from the defunct former Berlin Berthold AG specified the year 1981/82 for the Polo typeface. I wonder, why Salden now says at his website that Polo is ten years older.

[Uli]

Riddle

This scan from a font book published more than 30 years ago

www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/Glasgow-Polo.gif

reveals that Polo is a straightforward copy of Glasgow

(and vice versa)

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Visit the website www.glasgowpolo.com,
and you'll understand,
why the font was called both Glasgow and Polo.

The Berthold Types catalog of 1988 did not yet include Polo.

So, which came first, Glasgow or Polo?

[Uli]

Here

www.fontblog.de/wp-content/polo%20vs%20meta.pdf

and

www.fontblog.de/das-geruecht-meta-sei-eine-kopie-von-polo

are discussions Polo vs. Meta.

(Meta was published after Polo/Glasgow.)

[cdavidson]

I'm confused. I have obtained a copy of Glasgow Regular from the QBF archive, but haven't come across a licence. Can it be used in commercial design work?

(Sadly I can't read German, so if anyone would also like to interpret the two articles posted by Uli, that would be most appreciated!)

[Uli]

> (Sadly I can't read German, so if anyone would also like to interpret the two articles posted by Uli, that would be most appreciated!)

The two articles discuss the question whether Meta is a clone of Polo (alias Glasgow).

[Albert Jan Pool]

Walter Brendel (1933-1992) was the founder of Brendel Informatik, Brendel & Pabst and the Type Shop group of phototypesetting houses. He also co-founded the European Typeface Corporation (ETC) which was connected with Typo Bach, another group of phototypesetting houses.
Brendel’s Serials were based on existing typeface designs, which had typically been made fit for creating a range of 7 weights from extra light to extra bold by interpolation. The Serials Typeface Collection used to be exclusively available through Brendel’s Type Shops, Typo Bach and others.

The German type designer Georg Salden created another range of exclusive typefaces, they were only available through the GST group of typesetting houses. Similar to Brendel’s Type Shops and Adrian William’s Club Type, the GST group also tried to enforce customer loyalty by offering typefaces that were exclusive to their group. As all of these typesetting houses worked for the same advertising agencies, their typeface libraries show many similarities. Some of these similarities were created on purpose, some of them not. Some of them are just copies, some of them are re-engineered designs, some of them are adaptations of existing designs, some of them are originals …

Currently, the Type Shop / Serials typeface library is maintained and marketed by Elsner+Flake.
http://www.fonts4ever.com/foundry_detail.php?f_shops_id=3&f_fonts_belegu...

The GST typefaces, such as Polo, are available through his company TypeManufactur
http://www.typemanufactur.com/

Adrian Williams Club Type is available through Club Type
http://www.clubtype.co.uk

also have a look into this thread for a similar case
https://typography.guru/forums/topic/86806-forwarding