In 1964,
Volkswagen AG bought
Auto Union GmbH from
Daimler Benz. The main active brand of Auto Union was
DKW, but it was soon dropped by Volkswagen and replaced by Auto Union's dormant
Audi brand. In the early 1970s, the dealer organizations of Volkswagen and Audi merged. In the following years, Volkswagen AG re-thought their future strategy. They envisioned buying several car companies to round out their offerings. They also envisioned selling a multitude of brands under giant dealer roofs. The new dealer organization, financial services, and all other non-car related activities were to come under one branded umbrella. Eventually, Volkswagen intended to use this umbrella as the name of their holding company:
General Motors in reverse.
GGK Düsseldorf was tasked with the branding concept. Finding a distinct typeface was an integral part. Volkswagen at the time had
Futura as their typeface. Audi at the time used
Times. The new typeface would be neither sans-serif (like Futura) nor serif (like Times), and the idea for a rounded typeface was born. After the company failed to find an existing rounded typeface at the time, the new typeface had to be developed. The original idea was conceived by Wolf Rogosky (
creative director) and Gerd Hiepler (
art director). Over several years, the identity concept was refined by Bertel Schmitt (creative director) and Manfred Schwarzer (art director). The original typeface was rendered by hand. It was then perfected on a
PDP-8 minicomputer.
How VAG Rounded was born
In 1978, the whole Volkswagen and Audi Dealer Organization worldwide was re-branded as V.A.G using the distinct V.A.G Rounded (or V.A.G Rundschrift) as the font for all signage, and for all headlines in their advertising. The V.A.G logo did not use the font. Worldwide availability of the font was a problem. To solve the problem, V.A.G Rounded was put in the public domain[
citation needed]. As Desktop Publishing emerged in the mid 1980s, V.A.G Rounded was included in most free font packages and became widely used for that reason. A free modern implementation is MgOpen Modata.
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