---
title: "Optima (1958) — Hermann Zapf"
description: "Optima was designed by Hermann Zapf in 1958. What it signals, where you have seen it."
url: https://atoneplace.net/font/optima/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Optima

**Optima: Hermann Zapf, 1958**

Sans-serif · Elegant, slightly classical. Cosmetics, memorials, luxury that does not want to shout.

A sans-serif with stroke contrast, which is a contradiction that mostly does not work and here does. Zapf drew the first sketches on banknotes in a Florence church in 1950, having no other paper. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has all 58,000 names cut in it.

## The facts

- **Designed by:** Hermann Zapf
- **Released:** 1958
- **Classification:** Sans-serif
- **What it signals now:** Elegant, slightly classical. Cosmetics, memorials, luxury that does not want to shout.

## Where you have seen it

- The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Estée Lauder
- Marks & Spencer for many years

## Other typefaces from the 1950s

| Typeface | Year | Designer | What it signals |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Courier | 1955 | Howard Kettler | A typewriter, a screenplay, or code written before syntax highlighting. |
| Helvetica | 1957 | Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann | Neutral corporate modernism. So common it reads as no choice at all — which was the intent. |
| Univers | 1957 | Adrian Frutiger | Systematic Swiss design. The typeface for people who find Helvetica sloppy. |

> This page describes the typeface rather than showing it. Displaying a specimen requires a licensed font file and almost none of these may be redistributed, so the descriptions name the letters to look at instead.

## Common questions

### Who designed Optima?

Hermann Zapf, in 1958.

### What is Optima used for?

Elegant, slightly classical. Cosmetics, memorials, luxury that does not want to shout. You will have seen it on The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Estée Lauder, Marks & Spencer for many years.

## Related pages

- [Typefaces from the 1950s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1950s/)
- [Akzidenz-Grotesk](https://atoneplace.net/font/akzidenz-grotesk/)
- [Franklin Gothic](https://atoneplace.net/font/franklin-gothic/)
- [Johnston](https://atoneplace.net/font/johnston/)
- [Futura](https://atoneplace.net/font/futura/)
- [Gill Sans](https://atoneplace.net/font/gill-sans/)
- [Helvetica](https://atoneplace.net/font/helvetica/)
- [Univers](https://atoneplace.net/font/univers/)
- [Eurostile](https://atoneplace.net/font/eurostile/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]