I sine mange logotyper har Ole Søndergaard
gradvist udviklet et mere personligt, og måske mere tidssvarende, udtryk; det gælder f.eks. ’Unibank’, ’Unicon’ og ’Eltra’. Med denne erfaring i bagagen fik han i 1999 Statens Kunstfonds treårige arbejdslegat til at udvikle et skilte-alfabet.

Med rentegnings- og digitaliseringsassistance fra Flemming Rinds og Morten Rostgaard Olsen har ’Signa’ udviklet sig til at blive en komplet digital alfabetfamilie – til meget mere end skiltebrug.

De første fonte i Signafamilien (Caps, Column
og Normal i varianterne Light, Book, Bold, Black
– og med komplet garniture af specialtegn) blev
i 2000 udsendt af FontShop International
(www.fontfont.de), og siden udgivelsen er flere
fonte kommet til, bl.a. condensed, extended,
Slab Serif og diverse kursiver.

Fontshop International’s skriftbibliotek The FontFont Library, som Signa nu er en del af, omfatter skrifter af mange af tidens markante skriftformgivere, bl.a. Erik Spiekermann, Neville Brody og Erik van Blokland, og hermed er skriften ikke blot kommet i fint selskab, den får – hvad der er vigtigere – også mulighed for en international distribution.

In his many logotypes Ole Søndergaard has gradually developed a more personal and perhaps more contemporary expression; this is the case for example with ‘Unibank’, ‘Unicon’ and ‘Eltra’. With this experience under his belt, he was awarded the three-year working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation in 1999 to develop a signage alphabet.

With assistance from Flemming Rinds and Morten Rostgaard Olsen for refinement and digitisation, ‘Signa’ has developed into a complete digital alphabet family that goes far beyond signage.

The first fonts in the Signa family (Caps, Column and Normal in the styles Light, Book, Bold, and Black – and with a complete series of special characters) were launched in 2000 by FontShop International (www.fontfont.de); since the launch, more fonts have been added, including condensed, extended, Slab Serif and various italics.

Fontshop International’s font library, the FontFont Library, which Signa is now a part of, includes typefaces by many of today’s leading typeface designers, among them Erik Spiekermann, Neville Brody and Erik van Blokland. Thus, Signa has not
only joined the big league – more importantly,
it has also tapped into international distribution channels.