At the beginning of the twentieth century, in addition to new bold serif and slab-serif designs, the first elegant sans-serif typefaces — known as grotesques — began to appear in type foundry specimens. This modern trend influenced the design and use of display type throughout the following century up to the present day. Typefaces such as Französische Grotesk, Reform Grotesk, Breite Halbfette Grotesk, Normal Grotesk, and Square Gothic can without exaggeration be regarded as canons of aesthetic standards for most modern typefaces.
Urban Grotesk seeks to build on the best qualities of the original grotesques. It features oval curves, subtle thinning at the joins of connecting strokes, and a vertical stress axis, with terminals cut strictly perpendicular to the direction of the stroke. Particularly characteristic are the way curves connect to stems, the round dot, slightly lower and more economical capitals, and generously proportioned numerals. The width proportions of the characters are nearly unified, creating a consistent grey typographic colour across the page. A more open spacing supports good readability in texts.

The updated version of Urban Grotesk expands the glyph set to include Cyrillic and Greek characters, fractions, currency symbols, revised interpolations, and new alternate characters.