The original Orpheus Typeface design by Walter Tiemann (1926-1928, Klingspor) was certainly a masterpiece. Unfortunately, like so many typefaces of that between-wars era, it got overlooked when type technology changed over to film, and once again when digital type came around. But during the decade or so when it was available on the metal type market, it was quite popular in Germany.
Tiemann was already famous for having an incomparable instinct for the construct and proportions of classic Roman caps, something that shows in spades here, but the surprising genius of Orpheus at the time was how it managed to seamlessly combine an expert vision of the traditional empire caps with a lowercase that showcases a very fine and precise infusion of that efficient rhythm of modern minimalism that was all the rage in Germany at the time, which of course lives on to this very day.
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