Forma, introduced to the market in 1966, was an interesting design created at the Nebiolo type foundry from Turin, Italy. The background of the design process is particularly interesting: in order to create a product that would clearly respond to the requirements of the market, a committee was established.

Apart from typeface designer Aldo Novarese, who was also the leader of the committee, all other members were (typo)graphic designers – the potential users of the new typeface. According to the Forma’s type specimen from 1968 other members of the committee were: Franco Grignani, Giancarlo Iliprandi, Bruno Munari, Ilio Negri, Till Neuburg, Luigi Oriani and Pino Tovaglia.

Forma’s thickened strokes towards their ends.

Being in charge of the project, Novarese defined the main proportions of the typeface, such as the relationship between uppercase and lowercase letterforms, and the features related to the most important technical issues. All other decisions were discussed among the members. According to the article in the British Printer from 1968, the typeface “... underwent numerous changes on the advice of the committee until general agreement was reached." [1]

The characterset in the semibold version.

The final version clearly shows that many people were involved in the design process. Besides having the typical neo-grotesque appearance (rounded strokes cut horizontally, alternative characters for the capital “R” with the curved tail, “G” with a spur, etc.), Forma had some features, characteristic for other groups of sans serifs.

In order to achieve better reproduction, particularly in the photogravure printing, the strokes of the typeface were slightly thickened towards their ends (fig. 3.20, left; from this perspective, Forma was similar to Zapf’s Optima, which is usually labelled as a humanist sans serif). The thickening of the strokes was also created in order to increase the legibility of the typeface. Forma also had some features typical for the geometric sans serifs (see the default, single-storey version of the lowercase “a”; some parts of the uppercase and lowercase letterforms were also fairly close to the basic geometric shapes).

Alternative characters in Forma illustrated in Nebiolo specimen from 1968.

When issuing the first three versions (semibold, semibold italic and bold) Nebiolo announced that “... the other versions will be made according to users’ requirements”. [2] Since the only design made afterwards was the outline version (Forma contornata), it seems, that users were not particularly interested in this design. To my knowledge, Forma has never been properly drawn in digital version.

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[1], [2] ‘The making of a Type design – by a committee’, in: British Printer, vol. 81, no. 9, September 1968, London: Maclean – Hunter Ltd, 1968 [p. 86–95; author not given].
All pictures taken from a type specimen: Societa Nebiolo. Forma, propaganda Nebiolo n.15, Torino: 1968.