Gerard Unger designed Swift™ between 1984 and 1987, with the intention of making a modern digital type for newspapers. The project was undertaken for the German firm Dr.-ing Rudolf Hell GMBH. At that time, newspapers were produced on high-speed presses with low quality paper. Unger says Swift™ is designed to be a survivor. It has chunky triangular serifs, sturdy connections at junctures, condensed forms with open counters, and a tall x-height. The lines of the characters follow the sweeping motions of the similarly named bird. Austere and concise, firm and original, Swift™ is a typeface suited to almost any purpose: it has become a contemporary classic, and is now used more often for corporate identities and magazines than for newspapers.
The exercise shown here below consists in making the specimen of Swift typeface, showing all of its weights, its possibilities and its usages.