GT Era

Flavor over conformity

GT Era is not perfect type. It is specific type. It champions recognition over uniformity. Raw in its expression; bold, generous architecture meeting sharp details. Flavour over conformity. We molded the era of type available to early modernists into a single postmodernist tool.

Grilli Type

GT Era • Display

Luzern • Brooklyn

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Grilli
Type

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Cesca • B55 •
Cantilever • B19 •
Wassily

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Synthesis of
Art, Craft, &
Technology

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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1º Piano/1st Floor
(1.0m=3⅓'=39.4")

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Exhibition of Unknown Architects – A New
Guild of Craftspeople

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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14. April 1898
Bauersche Giesserei
Hamburger Allee 45
Frankfurt am Main

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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International Global
Dessau → Chicago, IL
Luzern → Greenpoint, NY

Grilli Type

GT Era • Display

Luzern • Brooklyn

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

ERA

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

The Crystal Symbol
of the New Faith of
the Future

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Deutscher Werkbund
Vom Sofakissen zum Städtebau

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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An Architecture Adapted to
Our World: Machines, Radios
& Fast Cars

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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The value of
craftsmanship versus
mass production

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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The practical purpose
of formal beauty in
commonplace objects

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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The relationship of
usefulness and beauty

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Whether or not
a single proper form can exist

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Exemplary Products
of Universal Validity

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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The Spatial Implementation
of Intellectual Decisions

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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A Tubular Steel Frame,
Rattan Upholstery, and Lacquered Wood

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Curved Chrome Pipes;
Cantilevered Steel Frame

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Walter Gropius’
study of essentials

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Hannes Meyer’s
research into user requirements

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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“Typography must be communication in its most intense form. The emphasis must be on absolute clarity.”
László Moholy-Nagy

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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“Art should meet the needs of society and there should be no distinction between form and function.”
William Morris

Grilli Type

GT Era • Text

Luzern • Brooklyn

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

GT Era, released in 2025 by Grilli Type AG in Luzern, Switzerland, is a grotesque sans-serif typeface offered in 8 weights, display and text styles, and upright and oblique slants. Its distinguished by a warmth characteristic of pre-modern grotesk typefaces but adapted to contemporary applications.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

The Cesca chair, created in 1928 by Marcel Breuer combined a tubular steel frame with a cane seat and back. Among the earliest tubular steel furniture designs, it exemplified Bauhaus modernism. Breuer named it after his adopted daughter, Francesca. The chair remains a landmark in 20th-century design history.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Akzidenz-Grotesk, introduced by Berlin’s H. Berthold AG in 1898, emerged from earlier “jobbing” sans-serifs like Royal Grotesk. Little-known initially, it rose to prominence post-World War II as a staple of Swiss “International Style” graphic design. Its clean, neutral aesthetic influenced countless later sans-serifs.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Venus, released from 1907 by the Bauersche Gießerei (Bauer Type Foundry) in Frankfurt, is a grotesque sans-serif family offered in condensed and extended styles. It gained popularity early in the 20th century. Its hallmarks include irregular stroke terminals and unusually high-waisted capitals, reflecting an Art Nouveau influence.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Anni Albers
(1899–1994)
Germany

Anni Albers was a German-born textile artist and printmaker. A Bauhaus alumna, she pioneered modernist weaving, blending craft with art. She later taught at Black Mountain College and co-founded the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

László Moholy-Nagy
(1895–1946)
Hungary

László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian-born artist and Bauhaus professor. He pioneered photograms and kinetic light sculptures, integrating technology into art. After emigrating to the U.S., he founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago, influencing modern design education.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Paul Klee
(1879–1940)
Switzerland/Germany

Paul Klee was a Swiss-German painter known for his unique style blending abstraction and figuration. A Bauhaus instructor, he employed various media and techniques, often incorporating humor and musical elements. His works reflect deep emotional and intellectual depth.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Walter Gropius
(1883–1969)
Germany, America

Walter Gropius, a German-American architect, founded the Bauhaus in 1919, merging art, craft, and technology. He directed the school until 1928, later teaching at Harvard University. Gropius's work influenced modernist architecture and design globally.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Sommerfeld House (1920–21) was the first major collaborative Bauhaus architecture project in Berlin, designed by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer for developer Adolf Sommerfeld. Built with salvaged battleship wood, it involved nearly all Bauhaus workshops—furnishings, stained glass, carved ornament—to realize their “total work of art.” The house was destroyed in World War II.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Deutscher Werkbund, founded in Munich in 1907 by figures like Hermann Muthesius and Peter Behrens, aimed to unite designers, artists, and industrialists to elevate mass-produced goods through quality design, from “sofa-cushions to city-building.” It strongly influenced modernist design and paved the way for the Bauhaus.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

The Wassily Chair, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-26 at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, features a tubular steel frame with leather or canvas straps. Inspired by bicycle construction, it was first produced by Thonet as Model B3. The chair became known as "Wassily" after painter Wassily Kandinsky admired it.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

El Lissitzky
(1890–1941)
Hungary

El Lissitzky, born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, was a Russian-Jewish avant-garde artist. A leading Constructivist, he created the Proun series, collaborated with UNOVIS, and advanced modernist typography, exhibition design, and visual propaganda, influencing 20th-century graphic and architectural practices.

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(1886–1969)
Germany/america

Ludwig Mies van der Rohewas a German-born American architect renowned for pioneering modernist architecture. His minimalist designs, such as the Barcelona Pavilion and Seagram Building, emphasized simplicity and structural clarity, embodying the principle “less is more.”

60 px

Text (16)

Regular (400)

Upright (0)

Marcel Breuer
(1902–1981)
Hungary/America

Marcel Breuer was a Hungarian-American architect and designer. A Bauhaus alumnus, he pioneered tubular steel furniture with the Wassily and Cesca chairs. His Brutalist architectural works include the Whitney Museum and IBM La Gaude. He became a U.S. citizen in 1944.

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