Ladislav Sutnar (1897–1976) devoted his entire life to the visualization of information in everyday life as well as in public space, and to visual literacy in general. First in Czechoslovakia, and from 1939 also in New York City, where he joined other prominent émigrés such as El Lissitzky, Herbert Bayer, and László Moholy-Nagy. Over time, Sutnar worked on book and magazine design, posters, advertising graphics, product catalogs, visual identity, and wayfinding systems. He also designed wooden toys and puppets, worked in scenography, created drinking glassware and porcelain, and devoted a significant part of his work to exhibition design and fine art painting. His insights into design and visual flow were recorded in several professional publications, which rank among the most important texts on graphic design.
Sutnar was a pioneer of modern graphic and information design, but he also engaged in type design. In 1958, he drew part of an alphabet and a set of numerals for house signage in the Bronx, and later developed a similar concept for a wayfinding system at the Brooklyn School. It is no surprise that his designs incorporate all the typical features of his work: simplicity, clarity, directness, and strong visual impact.
The typeface Ladislav revitalizes Sutnar’s legacy, although it does not directly replicate any of his original type designs. It preserves their technical character and underlying principles of letter construction — a simple modular system built from connected basic geometric segments. This approach shapes all-around forms of both lowercase and uppercase letters, as well as the morphology of most numerals.