In 1922, German professor Jakob Erbar created the first ever geometric sans-serif typeface (above). In accordance with the hugely influential Bauhaus school of design, the typeface aimed for a pure functionality, with no ornamentation or individual characteristics. It is based on the circle — the most fundamental of all typographic components — and is supremely easy to read, which is a typeface’s basic function after all.
The Bauhaus designers believed in a world where form and function destroyed ornamentation, clutter and revivals of the more decorative past. Only in this world could social equality truly come into being, they believed. It would be utopia by design.