About Wolpe Fanfare

Wolpe Fanfare is part of The Wolpe Collection of typefaces, and displays an unmistakable sense of energy with an all-caps, sans-serif character set that leans forward, urging the eye forward. The Wolpe Collection celebrates Berthold Wolpe’s outstanding body of work, and includes five iconic typefaces, digitized and updated by Toshi Omagari of the Monotype Studio.

Initially designed for Fanfare Press, the Fanfare typeface packed more into a small space than most typefaces. It was a natural for book and movie titles, and more general branding. “Fanfare is such a fun typeface,” says Toshi. “It was my happiest discovery when I was digging through the Monotype archive. I came across it and had to check the designer’s name.” No wonder: the Fanfare typeface, brimming with energy and optimism, is not a style you’d immediately associate with Berthold Wolpe, who best known for Albertus. Albertus is serious, classical and monumental, while Fanfare is modern, light and playful.

Eighty years on, the Fanfare typeface needed to be digitized and updated to serve a full range of modern applications. Toshi designed six weights - light, thin, regular, bold, black and inline - all of which preserve the character of the original letterforms. “I wanted to do more than digitize the original weight,” says Toshi. “It’s surprisingly modern, and its skeleton, its basic structure, is so beautiful.” To complete the Wolpe Fanfare font set, he added Greek and Cyrillic characters.