About - R41

italian masters of iconic fonts and graphics since 1960

Our history begins when graphic design shifted from being accessible to only a small niche, to finally becoming a widespread democratic tool. The invention of transfer lettering brought design into the houses of DIY creatives all over the world.

A TIMELESS ORIGINAL

We were born in the 60s, between Punk and Pop Art: the revolution had begun.

Founded in 1960 by Renato Bernardi, a brilliant entrepreneur from Verona, Reber R41 developed an innovative version of dry-transfer technology. R41 rub-on-transfers were hugely successful with designers, architects, and creatives who appreciated their small size (9cmx25cm), affordable price, and variety of alphabets and designs.

More than 25,000,000 sheets of R41 transfers were sold worldwide.

REBER R41

A FAMILY
AFFAIR

Since its foundation, R41 has always been in the hands of the same family. That’s why keeping the original spirit alive comes so naturally, as well as breathing new life into our work, from one generation to the next.

A UNIQUE COLLABORATION

Reber R41 and Aldo Novarese

Renato Bernardi reached out to the Turin typeface company Nebiolo, and the director of its Artistic Studio, Aldo Novarese, recognised as one of the best Italian type designers in the world.

Their friendship and mutual esteem translated into a fruitful collaboration that filled R41 catalogs with Nebiolo fonts expressly designed for the advertising industry, including Novarese’s Metropol, Dattilo, Recta, and Forma, that soon became modern classics.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

A Digital Legacy

Throughout the years, R41 continued to collaborate with exceptional type designers such as James Clough and Novarese himself, who designed dozens of new alphabets, many of which still remain unpublished.

R41 flourished in the 60s and 70s, alongside groundbreaking imagery crafted by visionaries like Hitchcock and Kubrick. Our aesthetic approach has always been forward-thinking
That's why, after all those years, our style is still contemporary.

Never stop playing

Many of the patterns you can pick from our original brushes were used in the pioneering comic strips of Italian history: Diabolik, Topolino, Cattivik... When you choose our original brushes, you're playing with the same material that most creatives of the past used to depict new marvelous scenarios in the fantasy world.

Our widespread archive is meant to be an inspiration for the designers of tomorrow: if you keep playing, inventing, and experimenting, your possibilities are endless.

WHAT IS COMING IS BETTER THAN WHAT IS GONE

We digitalized our fonts and graphic elements to ensure R41's iconic heritage in the hands of tomorrow's creatives.