Jan Tschichold (born Johannes Tzschichhold, also known as Iwan Tschichold, or Ivan Tschichold; 2 April 1902 – 11 August 1974) was a German

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

and

book designer Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though ...

. He played a significant role in the development of graphic design in the 20th century – first, by developing and promoting principles of typographic modernism, and subsequently idealizing conservative typographic structures. His direction of the visual identity of

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Sabon Sabon is an old-style serif typeface designed by the German-born typographer and designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) in the period 1964–1967. It was released jointly by the Linotype, Monotype, and Stempel type foundries in 1967. The design ...

Life

Tschichold was the son of a provincial

signwriter Signwriters design, manufacture and install signs, including advertising signs for shops, businesses and public facilities as well as signs for transport systems. Signwriting today Traditional signwriters use methods closely related to th ...

, and he was trained in calligraphy. In 1919, he began in the class of Hermann Delitzsch a study on the Leipziger Akademie der Künste (Leipzig Academy of the Arts). Due to his extraordinary achievements, he soon became a master pupil of the rector of

Walter Tiemann Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

, a type designer with the Gebr.-Klingspor foundry, and was given the task of teaching his fellow students. At the same time, he received the first orders as part of the Leipzig Trade Fair and in 1923 set up his own business as a typographic consultant to a print shop. This

artisan An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

background and calligraphic training set him apart from almost all other noted typographers of the time, since they had inevitably trained in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

or the

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

s. It also may help explain why he never worked with handmade papers and custom typefaces as many typographers did, preferring instead to use stock faces on a careful choice from commercial paper stocks. Although, up to this moment, he had only worked with historical and traditional typography, he radically changed his approach after his first visit to the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

exhibition at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

. After being introduced to important artists such as

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the ...

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, Constructivism (art), constructivism, surrealism ...

and others who were carrying out radical experiments to break the rigid schemes of conventional typography. He became sympathetic to this attempt to find new ways of expression and to reach a much more experimental way of working, but at the same time, felt it was important to find a simple and practical approach. He became one of the most important representatives of the "new typography" and in a special issue of ''Typographischen Mitteilungen'' (typographic communications) in 1925 with the title of "Elementare Typografie" (elementary typography), he summarized the new approaches in the form of theses. After the election of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

in Germany, all designers had to register with the Ministry of Culture, and all teaching posts were threatened for anyone who was sympathetic to

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

. Soon after Tschichold had taken up a teaching post in Munich at the behest of

Paul Renner Paul Friedrich August Renner (9 August 1878 – 25 April 1956) was a German typeface designer, author, and founder of the Master School for Germany's Printers in Munich. In 1927, he designed the Futura typeface, which became one of the most ...

, they were both denounced as "cultural Bolshevists". Ten days after the Nazis surged to power in March 1933, Tschichold and his wife were arrested. During the arrest,

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

posters were found in his flat, casting him under suspicion of collaboration with communists. All copies of Tschichold's books were seized by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

''"for the protection of the German people"''. After six weeks a policeman somehow found him tickets for Switzerland, and he and his family managed to escape Nazi Germany in August 1933. Apart from two longer stays in England in 1937 (at the invitation of the

Penrose Annual ''The Penrose Annual'' was a London-based review of graphic arts, printed nearly annually from 1895 to 1982. ''Penrose'' began in 1895 as ''Process Work Yearbook – Penrose's Annual.'' Lund Humphries has printed the publication since 1897 and ...

), and 1947–1949 (at the invitation of

Ruari McLean John David Ruari McLean CBE, DSC (10 June 1917 – 27 March 2006) was a leading British typographic designer. Early life and apprenticeship Ruari McLean was born in Scotland on 10 June 1917, in Newton Stewart, Galloway. He was educated at th ...

, the British typographer, with whom he worked on the design of

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

design principles in 1923 after visiting the first Weimar Bauhaus exhibition. He became a leading advocate of Modernist design: first with an influential 1925 magazine supplement mentioned above); then a 1927 personal exhibition; then with his most noted work ''Die neue Typographie''. This book was a manifesto of modern design, in which he condemned all typefaces but sans-serif (called ''Grotesk'' in Germany). He also favoured non-centered design (e.g., on title pages), and codified many other Modernist design rules. He advocated the use of standardised paper sizes for all printed matter, and made some of the first clear explanations of the effective use of different sizes and weights of type in order to quickly and easily convey information. This book was followed with a series of practical manuals on the principles of Modernist typography, which had a wide influence among ordinary workers and printers in Germany. Yet, despite his visits to England just before the war, only about four articles by Tschichold had been translated into English by 1945. Although ''Die neue Typographie'' remains a classic, Tschichold slowly abandoned his rigid beliefs from around 1932 onwards (e.g. his Saskia typeface of 1932, and his acceptance of classical Roman typefaces for body-type) as he moved back towards

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthet ...

in print design. He later condemned ''Die neue Typographie'' as too extreme. He also went so far as to condemn Modernist design in general as being authoritarian and inherently fascistic. Between 1947 and 1949 Tschichold lived in England, where he oversaw the redesign of 500

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, ...

s published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Penguin Composition Rules Penguin Composition Rules were the guidelines written by typographer Jan Tschichold for use in composing the pages and typography of Penguin Books. The rules were embodied in a four-page booklet of typographic instructions for editors and composito ...

''. Although he gave Penguin's books (particularly the Pelican range) a unified look and enforced many of the typographic practices that are taken for granted today, he allowed the nature of each work to dictate its look, with varied covers and title pages. In working for a firm that made inexpensive mass-market paperbacks, he was following a line of work — in cheap

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

forms (e.g. film posters) — that he had always pursued during his career. He was succeeded at Penguin by Hans Schmoller. His abandonment of Modernist principles meant that, even though he was living in Switzerland after the war, he was not at the centre of the post-war Swiss

International Typographic Style The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in Switzerland during the 1950s. The Internati ...

. Unimpressed by the use of realist or neo-grotesque typefaces, which he saw as a revival of poorly designed models, his survey of typefaces in advertising deliberately made no mention of such designs, save for a reference to 'survivals from the nineteenth-century which have recently enjoyed a short-lived popularity.'

Typefaces

Between 1926 and 1929, he designed a “universal alphabet” to clean up the few multigraphs and non-phonetic spellings in the German language. For example, he devised brand new characters to replace the multigraphs ''ch'' and ''sch''. His intentions were to change the spelling by systematically replacing ''eu'' with ''oi'', ''w'' with ''v'', and ''z'' with ''ts''. Long vowels were indicated by a macron below them, though the umlaut was still above. The alphabet was presented in one typeface, which was sans-serif and without capital letters. Typefaces Tschichold designed include: * Transit (1931) for " Lettergieterij Amsterdam, voorheen Tetterode", * Saskia (1931/1932), for: Schelter & Giesecke,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

* Zeus (1931) for:

Schriftguss AG Schriftguss AG was a type foundry in Germany founded in 1892 under the name ''Brüder Butter'' (“Butter Brothers”) by purchasing the type casting firm of Otto Ludwig Bechert that had been founded in 1889. It was later incorporated in 1922 as ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

* Uhertype-Standard-Grotesk (1931), for an early phototypesetting machine. Essentially a modified Gill Sans. *

Sabon Sabon is an old-style serif typeface designed by the German-born typographer and designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) in the period 1964–1967. It was released jointly by the Linotype, Monotype, and Stempel type foundries in 1967. The design ...

(1966/1967

Sabon was designed to be a typeface that would give the same reproduction on both

Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

and Linotype systems and there were also matrices made for type foundries. All type produced could be interchanged. It was used early after its release by

Bradbury Thompson J. Bradbury Thompson (March 25, 1911 – November 1, 1995) was an American graphic designer and art director known for his work designing magazines and postage stamps. Early life and education J. Bradbury Thompson was born on March 25, 1911 in To ...

to set the

Washburn College Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 ...

Bible. A “Sabon Next” was later released by Linotype as an ‘interpretation’ of Tschichold's original Sabon.

Bibliography

* ''Die neue Typographie. Ein Handbuch für zeitgemäß Schaffende'', Verlag des Bildungsverbandes der Deutschen Buchdrucker, Berlin 1928. ** English translation: ''The New Typography''. New edn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. * * ''Eine Stunde Druckgestaltung''. Stuttgart: Akademischer Verlag Dr. Fritz Wedekind & Co., 1930. * ''Schriftschreiben für Setzer''. Frankfurt a.M.: Klimsch & Co., 1931. * ''Typografische Entwurfstechnik''. Stuttgart: Akademischer Verlag Dr Fritz Wedekind & Co., 1932. * ''Typografische Gestaltung''. Basel: Benno Schwabe & Co., 1935. * ''Gute Schriftform''. Basel: Lehrmittelverlag des Erziehungsdepartements, 1941/42, 1943/44, 1945/46. * ''Geschichte der Schrift in Bildern''. Basel: Holbein-Verlag, 1941/1946 (reprint: Hamburg: Hauswedell, 1951/1961). ** English translation: ''An Illustrated History of Lettering and Writing''. London: o.V., 1947. * ''Chinesisches Gedichtpapier vom Meister der Zehnbambushalle''. Basel: Holbein-Verlag, 1947. * ''Was jemand vom Buchdruck wissen sollte''. Basel: Birkhäuser-Verlag, 1949. * ''Schatzkammer der Schreibkunst'', 2nd edn. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1949. * ''Im dienste des buches'', SGM-Bücherei, St. Gallen 1951. * ''Chinesischer Farbendruck aus dem Lehrbuch des Senfkorngartens'', Holbein-Verlag, Basel 1941 u. 1951. * ''Schriftkunde, Schreibübungen und Skizzieren für Setzer'', Holbein-Verlag, Basel 1942. – Reprint: ''Schriftkunde, Schreibübungen und Skizzieren'', expanded edn. Berlin: Verlag des Druckhauses Tempelhof, 1951. * ''Der Holzschneider und Bilddrucker Hu Cheng-yen''. Basel: Holbein-Verlag, 1943/1952. * ''Chinesische Farbendrucke der Gegenwart''. Basel: Holbein-Verlag, 1944/1953. ** English translation: ''Chinese Colour Printing of the present day''. London–New York: o.V., 1953. * ''Formenwandlungen der Et-Zeichen''. Frankfurt, Stempel, 1953 ** 1st English translation: ''The Ampersand: Its Origin and Development,'' London, Wodhuysen, 1957. ** 2nd English translation: ''A Brief History of the Ampersand,'' Paris, Zeug, 2017. * ''Erfreuliche Drucksachen durch gute Typografie''. Ravensburg: Otto Maier-Verlag, 1960

eprint In academic publishing, an eprint or e-print is a digital version of a research document (usually a journal article, but could also be a thesis, conference paper, book chapter, or a book) that is accessible online, usually as green open access, w ...

– Auch: Augsburg: Maro-Verlag, 1988, . * ** English edition: * ''Die Bildersammlung der Zehnbambushalle'', Eugen-Rentsch-Verlag, Zürich/Stuttgart 1970. * ''foto-auge'' usammen mit Franz Roh Akademischer Verlag Dr. Fritz Wedekind & Co., Stuttgart 1929

– Auch: Ernst Wasmuth, Tübingen 1973. * ''Ausgewählte Aufsätze über Fragen der Gestalt des Buches und der Typographie'', Birkhäuser-Verlag, Basel 1975 u. 1987, . * ''De proporties van het boek (Die Proportionen des Buches)'',

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, Amst., Intergrafia, 1955, de buitenkant, 1991 * ''Schriften'': 1925–1974 Band 1/2.

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, 1992. * ''The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design''. Roberts, WA: Hartley and Marks, 1995. * ''Jan Tschichold, Posters of the Avantgarde'', Martijn F. Le Coultre, Alston W. Purvis, VK-projects, Laren, The Netherlands, 2007, * ''Jan Tschichold — Master Typographer: His Life, Work & Legacy'', Cees W. de Jong, Alston W. Purvis, Martin F. Le Coultre, Richard B. Doubleday, Hans Reichardt, London: Thames & Hudson, 2008, * ''Jan Tschichold, and the New Typography'', Paul Stirton, Yale, 2019,

References

Sources

* Aynsley, Jeremy. ''Graphic Design in Germany, 1890–1945'' (2000. University of California Press) . * Blackwell, Lewis. ''20th Century Type'' (2004. Yale University Press) . * Günter Bose und Erich Brinkmann (Hrsg.): ''Jan Tschichold: Schriften 1925–1974.'' (Zwei Bände) Band 1: 1925–1947, Band 2: 1948–1974, Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin, 1992. . * Hans Rudolf Bosshard: ''Max Bill kontra Jan Tschichold. Der Typografiestreit in der Moderne.'' Niggli, Zürich, 2012, . * Bringhurst, Robert. ''The Elements of Typographic Style'' (1992. Hartley & Marks) . * Burke, Christopher. ''Active literature. Jan Tschichold and New Typography'' (2007.

Hyphen Press Hyphen Press is a London publisher of books on design and typography. Hyphen Press was founded by Robin Kinross in 1980, but has published nearly all of its books beginning in the 1990s. Hyphen Press has produced about thirty books on a diver ...

) . * de Jong, Cees W., Alston W. Purvis, Martijn F. Le Coultre, Richard B. Doubleday and Hans Reichart. ''Jan Tschichold—Master Typographer: His Life, Work & Legacy'' (2008. Thames & Hudson) . * Doubleday, Richard B. ''Jan Tschichold, Designer: The Penguin Years'' (2006. Oak Knoll Press & Lund Humphries) ; . * Gerd Fleischmann: ''Tschichold – na und?'', Göttingen, Wallstein Verlag, 2013 (Ästhetik des Buches; 3), * Friedl, Friederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An encyclopedic survey of type design and techniques through history'' (1998. Black Dog & Leventhal) . * ''Leben und Werk des Typographen Jan Tschichold, mit einer Einleitung von Werner Klemke, der Bibliographie aller Schriften und fünf großen Aufsätzen von Jan Tschichold sowie über zweihundert, teils bunten Abbildungen''. Dresden : Verlag der Kunst, 1977. * Macmillan, Neil. ''An A–Z of Type Designers'' (2006. Yale University Press) . * McLean, Ruari. ''Jan Tschichold: A Life in Typography'' (1997. Princeton Architectural Press) * Julia Meer: ''Neuer Blick auf die Neue Typographie – Die Rezeption der Avantgarde in der Fachwelt der 1920er Jahre.'' Transcript, Bielefeld 2015, insbes. S. 206–216 und 219 ff. . * Meggs, Philip B. ''History of Graphic Design'' (1998. John Wiley & Sons) . * IDEA Magazine No 321: Works of Jan Tschichold

*

Life

Typefaces

Bibliography

See also

References

Sources

External links