Chicago

Naming a bold display face after an American city, Chicago, was very much in the spirit of the era.

The late 19th and early 20th century was a period of great fascination in Europe with American industrial modernity, and French foundries often gave their display and poster types names that evoked energy, scale, and the exotic. Chicago, as one of the fastest-growing cities in the world at the time, fit perfectly as a name for a powerful, assertive display face. The Turlot foundry's catalog from this period was focused heavily on caractères d'affiches, large, bold poster typefaces, reflecting the boom in commercial printing and advertising at the turn of the century.