Sun

LF Sun comes in two widths and seven weights.

Sun is a headline and text face in two widths, designed for impact and clarity. The typeface was originally developed as part of Sun® Microsystems’s corporate identity, in close collaboration with the company’s Art Director, Chris Haaga. Sun wanted a display face that was similar to sans serif headline faces in US newspapers – i.e., rather condensed and heavy. Luc(as) recalls: “Chris had interestingly bizarre design ideas and the process took a long time. He showed me reference examples of two fonts that I would never have given a second look.”

As the Sun sans serif had to have an American look and feel, Luc(as) decided to refrain from using diagonal stress, the trademark construction principle of his other sans serif faces. Instead, he created subtle weight differences in the character strokes in a time-consuming intuitive trial and error process.

After the exclusivity period expired, the Sun family was expanded, initially for use by the Berlin weekly newspaper Jungle World. For the retail version, which was released in 2000, the family was completed with Italics for the Condensed version; the OpenType version has a Central European character set as well as integrated small caps, extra figure styles and an extensive series of special ligatures.

Sun in use

Sun was originally developed as a display typeface for Sun® Microsystems’s Corporate Identity, with TheAntiqua Sun as its companion text face. Page from the Sun Design Manual.
Blijven kijken! For the cover design of a book celebrating fifty years of television in Flanders, designer Jan Middendorp used a beta version of Sun Condensed.
For many years, Sun was the headline typeface of the German weekly Jungle World, for which Luc(as) de Groot also hand-drew the masthead. In 2007, the design was radically overhauled with Floris as its main typeface.

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