BC Civitas

The Civitas typeface was originally designed for the orientation system of Prague’s Jižní Město II. prefab housing estate in the 1970s. The Civitas typeface was a part of the timeless and easy-to-use orientation system and imbued the prefab housing estate with an unmistakable visual style.

A characteristic detail throughout the Civitas typeface is its interrupted strokes and open curves. Another distinctive drawing detail is in the oval ink traps extending deep into the letters with diagonals.

Civitas was originally drawn in one weight only. However, the typeface’s construction has the potential for additional styles and weights. We drew from base materials of upper and lower case letterforms on small (around 15cm) film originally photographically enlarged and reduced. The thin ink traps are visible in these base materials, too, as are the very light diacritics typical of Czechoslovak typography in the 1970s and 80s. We decided to preserve this, which is why the digitised Civitas contains two sets of accents: the original thin accents (and with the ring connected directly with the U) and the more contemporary darker accents.

In addition to its diacritics, Civitas contains a number of other alternative characters and stylistic sets. One of these is a set with closed characters, where the outstrokes of the characters are connected to the stems.