In the early 1950s, Czech type foundries were nationalized and merged into a single state-owned company Grafotechna1 located in in Prague. As a result of borders closing in the Eastern Bloc and also due to a lack of foreign currency, the purchase of type, printing and typesetting machines from abroad withered up. Supplies of type quickly deteriorated through use and wear and tear in printing. Production was to be governed for many long years by heavy-handed socialist planning. The Grafotechna type foundry was the only producer and distributor of type to all printers in communist Czechoslovakia.
Matyáš Bartoň (1992) studies in the Studio of Type Design and Typography at the Academy of Arts Architecture & Design in Prague (UMPRUM). During his studies, he completed an internship at KABK in The Hague under Niels Schrader and explored graphic and typographic projects. As part of his semester assignment, Evolution, he redesigned the Eurostile typeface and designed the Ponzastura typeface, which works on the principle of rotating the white inner surfaces by 90 degrees. He graduated with his bachelors’ project Executive In The Pines, which explored the rules of combining typefaces, and is continuing toward his master's degree. He exhibited at the International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno 2018.
Matyáš is designer of our new release BC Minim, the second variable font by Briefcase.
