Barnbrook originally called this typeface Manson (after American serial killer Charles Manson) "to reveal extreme opposite emotions-- love and hate, charm and ugliness," he has actually said. Emigre recommended the name be changed to Mason, as the letter kinds likewise evoke stonecutters' work, Freemasons' symbology, and pagan iconography.
In its design, Barnbrook was affected by nineteenth-century Russian letter types, Greek architecture, and Renaissance Bibles; the font likewise shows many references to pop culture, politics, and typographic history.
Mason's postmodern attitude is undeniable and, like Neville Brody's Blur, Mason emerged throughout the surge of digital typefaces in the early 1990s, both items of the technological and cultural influences of the time.
In 2011 Mason Sans was one of 23 digital typefaces included in the permanent architecture and style collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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