MegaMegaTypeType
Laurenz Brunner's revival of Dick Dooijes' 1958 Dutch neo-grotesque, drawn for the Amsterdam Type Foundry as a rival to Helvetica.
About
Dooijes designed Mercator for Lettergieterij Amsterdam in 1958, with a specimen binder by Wim Crouwel, but it never reached Helvetica's fame and kept a quiet cult following instead. Brunner found it in the letterpress workshop at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and began digitising it as a student. The revival comes in three weights with italics, with stylistic sets, ligatures and tabular figures.
Classification
A neo-grotesque in the tradition of mid-century European sans-serifs, originally conceived as a direct competitor to Helvetica. Its even stroke weight, closed apertures and rational structure place it squarely in the neo-grotesque category.