Folkwang is an unusual roman type with a lowercase that resembles an upright italic. Unusual top serifs are contrasted by almost no foot serifs. Originally released by the Klingspor foundry in 1955, this face originated from Hermann Schardt while he was the director of the Folkwang Werkkunstschule in Essen Germany circa 1949. According to British book designer and printing historian John Dreyfus in the 1955 Penrose Annual: Folkwang "...is a lovingly made piece of work which could have easily have been little more than an act of awe-struck reverence for the calligraphic techniques rediscovered by Edward Johnston and spread abroad in Germany by Anna Simons. Of special interest is the serif treatment of the lower-case letters: at the feet the terminals are mostly left bare, but the ascenders and the cross-strokes of the f and t are given elaborate curving serifs which in the mass create an effect unusual in a page of letters made as movable types, resembling rather more a piece of intaglio engraving. The ligatures ch and ck are original and successful."

Designer Hermann Schardt (1912-1984) designed the font Folkwang for release by the Klingspor Foundry (1949). He studied at the Essener Kunstgewerbeschule and taught at that institute from 1935 onwards. In 1948 he became director of the Folkwang Werkkunstschule.