Vivaldi – the second display face designed in Canada, Friedrich Peter, 1966

A print of the original design showing the wider caps Peter designed as well as three alternate lowercase letters, d, g, z, that were not used in the fonts. In addition to being narrowed the caps were redesigned and a few characters such as the % and * were altered from his original design. Vivaldi was also widely available under the name Virtuoso.

Notes

Vivaldi is an elaborate European-style italic display typeface designed by Friedrich Peter, a German artist, calligrapher and teacher who immigrated to Vancouver in 1957.

In 1966, Peter entered Vivaldi in an international typeface design competition organized by the Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC). His design was one of 12 runners-up that received a cash prize of $200 USD, as well as a royalty contract. One of the conditions of his contract was that the capital letters be made narrower in order to fit the viewer width of the VGC Phototypositor. Other characters were also changed and three alternate lowercase letters were dropped.

After the competition things did not go as planned, Peter recounts in his own words: “Later I discovered to my surprise one day that the typeface had appeared on the market under the Vivaldi name, issued by a different type foundry, with some changed character designs and insensitive kerning. After talking to Herman Zapf about it, whose typefaces suffered severe plagiarism, I gave up the idea to pursue intellectual property rights and a royalty contract.” “It pains me when I see applications of this bastardised version.”*

From his home in North Vancouver Peter continues to pursue a variety of creative endeavors, including painting, book illustration, and calligraphy. In addition to his artistic work, he has taught and influenced many aspiring artists and designers. – Rod McDonald

*From an email to Rod McDonald dated September 6, 2017.

  • Category
    Typeface Design

    Title
    Vivaldi

    Date
    1966

    Client
    Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC)

    Credits
    Design: Friedrich Peter FGDC

    Principal Typography
    Vivaldi

    Description
    A semi-formal, single weight, Italic display typeface

    Region
    British Columbia

    Language
    English

    Images
    3

    Holding
    Canadian Typography Archives

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