The industrial background of the early 20th century typography gave this neogrotesque well-adjusted foundational proportions and a robust appearance. While many neogrotesques aimed to tranquillize their rough old-grotesk origin with a homogeneous Helvetica-like style, Struve makes the opposite move. It preserves the dust of locomotives’ plates, reworking it in a consistent design approach.
A refined vertical stem-grid, building the regular rhythm of the type, provides clear legibility across various environments. Its closed aperture is balanced by full-bodied letterforms and a carefully defined large x-height, which together ensure proper reading experience for texts in extremely small sizes as well as in tightly composed poster titles. The style system of the type family is designed for a wide range of typesetting, providing a functional number of weight combinations.
The engineering behind Struve type family is based on a regular stem grid. Letter widths are categorized into various groups, aiding in the calculation of numerous parameters, from side bearings to the kerning pairs. Adhering to this grid provides a verifiable logic to the design process, which includes the selection of character widths and the implementation of solutions using ½ and ¼ of a stem for optical alignment and fine adjustments. As a result, this calculated precision acts as an invisible assistant to the human eye, helping to reduce the number of kerning pairs in the font and establishing a consistent rhythm in typesetting.
There are numerous discoveries in letter constructions within the typeface. The author found most of the alternative forms by examining various kinds of early 20th-century typographic ephemera. Artists, typographers, and even writers experimented with extraordinary letter shapes, bringing quirky and memorable typographic expressions to life. During the design process of Struve, the author carefully systematized these original decisions and aligned them with other letter shapes, making them available through different stylistic sets.