A second life: with KF Zuka, Kanon Foundry delivers a contemporary edition of a forgotten typeface

In Kanon Foundry’s practice, engaging with and learning from design history is an integral part of their creative process. “I’ve always been fascinated by the historical aspects of design, and the events that have shaped the design and expressions we have today,” Co-founder & Type Designer Tor Weibull tells us. “It is a great way to understand our heritage and also becomes a good source of inspiration.” One day, when sifting through Switzerland’s design history, Weibull stumbled upon the story of Züka – Zürich Canton Trade and Agriculture Exhibition. The event, which seamlessly brought together contemporary ideas of art, design and innovations from the agricultural scene, came to life on the edges of Lake Zürich in the late summer of 1947.

As Weibull leafed through archival photos of the exhibition, his eye was drawn to a display typeface seen all over the space, used in title signs and the wayfinding system. A bit of further digging, and the story of the typeface unfurled itself; called Züka-Schrift, the typeface was crafted exclusively for the exhibition by designer and lettering teacher Walter Käch. Weibull was enchanted by it. “There were several reasons why I was intrigued by Züka-Schrift,” he reveals. “Firstly, I really liked the expression of Käch’s design; it looks very contemporary despite being created in 1947. As I immersed myself further in the historical context, it became apparent that Züka-Schrift’s innovation was remarkable for its era.”

Interestingly, despite its creation a decade before Helvetica, it shares striking similarities with the iconic typeface. “However, Züka-Schrift is rarely, if ever, acknowledged for its role in shaping the emerging Neue Grotesk genre,” says Weibull. Perhaps the reason why the typeface never gets its due is partly because it never was made available commercially. To pull this oft-overlooked history – and the very typeface – out of the pages of yellowed books, Weibull decided to create a digital interpretation of the font. “Interpreting it felt like a nice way of honouring Käch’s work and putting it back on the map,” he adds.

Making sensitive alterations, he updated the design to better fit long chunks of text, keeping and shedding some aspects of the display typeface. “The original design is so nice that early on in the process, it became evident that I did not want to change it too much. My approach was mainly to maintain the expression, but adjust its functional aspects to make it more versatile,” shares Weibull. The final typeface, KF Zuka, flaunts letterforms that are well suited for longer text settings, thanks to the designer’s careful adjustments of its visual density. Take, for example, the letter ‘M.’ Käch’s version was “pretty narrow, but was too black compared to the rest of the letters, especially if it should be used for longer texts,” he shares. “By making it a bit wider, I got more air or white space in the letter; it helped the stroke joints to become less dense and black.” Other alterations were also made – the original ‘Q’ had a short tail, that became cramped and not very visible in smaller sizes; so, Weibull elongated the tail and improved its legibility.

“My sources of Käch’s original designs were quite limited regarding the glyphs he had produced. The sources I had only showed the A–Z characters in lowercase and uppercase. I could never find any drawings of the numbers, for instance,” he says. “So, the ones I’ve drawn are partly based on his drawings from 1949, which are designed with a similar approach. These can be found in his book ‘Schriften Lettering Écritures.’” By staying true to the spirit of the original design – and also adding many other glyphs to help KF Zuka meet today’s typographic standards – Kanon Foundry has successfully created a typeface that’s immediately modern, yet respectful of its history.

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