Jan Tschichold

The New Typography

The Classical Era

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Baltimore, Maryland 21250

We aim at simplicity: we therefore

require simple and other and clear

typeface. The closest to our modern

need is grotesque or sans serif.

The New Typography was revolutionary.

It was an appraisal of the machine and

modern technology. Tschichold affirmed

that type was supposed to be functional

instead of decorative. It was strongly

in favor of asymmetry and bold sans

serif typefaces.

We saw aesthetic models in industrial

products, and believing the sans serif

to be the simplest type face we

declared it to be the modern face.

At the same time, we a group of

artists, attempted to use asymmetry

to oust symmetrical design, which was

hardly ever employed in an intelligible

manner. Everything symmetrical

was unthinkingly assigned to the

propaganda methods of political

absolutism and declared obsolete.

The New Typography

The Classical Era&

Jan Tschichold

ContentsIntroduction

First Period: The New Typography

Historical Background

Influence of other Movements

The New Typography Characteristics

Second Period: The Classical Era

A Radical Change

Tschicholds Years in London

Design at Penguin

Sabon Design

Why Sabon?

Sabon Classification

Geralde Typefaces Characteristics

Conclusion

Jan Tschicholds response to Max Bill comments on the New Typography

Bibliography

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3

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4

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Jan Tschichold

This research will be on the study of Jan Tschicholds two different style periods and the reasons why quite diversestyles were developed in each one of them. His first period,then called the New Typography, dates to 1920. His secondperiod, or Classical Era, dates to approximately 1935. It is during this second phase that he returns to accept the tradi-tional typefaces and designs Sabon (1964). In order to fullycomprehend his two periods, we also need to understandwhat was going on in the world and why these stages inTschicholds life happened in that particular order.

Jan Tschichold was born in Leipzig, Germany in April 2, 1902.From his early childhood he was exposed to type, typographyand letterform because his father was a designer and a signpainter. At the beginning of his career, he was particularlyinterested in antiquarian lettering. He dedicated time tostudying calligraphy, its rules, and he also learned traditionaltypography at the Leipzig Academy of Graphic Arts and BookCrafts. After he graduated he was in charge of teaching a class in lettering and calligraphy. At this time he could still be considered conservative, and it is in 1923 when he got hisfirst exposure to the Bauhaus, that he would change his stylecompletely. This movement was his inspiration in which hewould develop the New Typography.

Introduction

Bauhaus:

Artistic and revolutionary

movement originated in Weimar,

Germany 1912-1924.

Most important artists: Lazlo

Moholo-Nagy, Herbert Bayer,

Joost Schmidt,

and Walter Gropius.

Jan Tschichold

Historical Background

It is worthy to mention some historical facts to be able tounderstand Tschicholds first period. During this time the worldwas being renovated by the machine and technology startedplaying a very important role in the production process. Thenew typography originated around 1920 as a protest againstthe enfeebled printing of the pre-war period. From 1930 untilthen, only one san serif type styles of typography followedanother, each one based on different kinds of decorative and centering principles. Jan Tschichold also felt this influence and revolutionary spirit, and applied it in his designs.

Influence of other Movements

Tschicholds work at this time was created using only type, geo-metric shapes, photographs and flat colors (usually a combina-tion of black and red) . Apart from posters, he designed com-mercial and personal letterhead, and also wrote and designedhis own books. In 1928, when he published his first book, DieNeue Typographie (The New Typography). As mentioned above,not only was he influenced by the Bauhaus, and Herbert Bayerswork, but he was also influenced by the works of the RussianSuprematism and Constructivism, especially El Lissitzyky.Tschichold even Russianised his name to Ivan to identify himself more closely with this movement. He also began topromote aggressively the new typography in printing tradejournals and a series of practical manuals. As Ruari McLean1,A strain of socialist idealism runs through Die NeueTypographie, just as it did in the life and word of William Morris.Both men saw that design is not something abstract but has to be an expression on mens lives. This is a clear example ofhow history and personal experiences play an important role inevery designers style.

First Period: The New Typography

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1. McLean, Ruari. Jan Tschichold: Typographer. Boston: David Godine, 1975.

Constructivism:

Russian artistic movement

contemporary to the Bahuaus.

Principal artists: El Lisistizy,

Alexander Rodchenko,

and Kasimir Malevich.

Suprematism:

Russian abstract art movement

launched in 1915 by Kasimir

Malevich. Suprematist paintings

used only a few colours and

basic geometric shapes.

4The New Typography Characteristics

The New Typography was revolutionary. It was an appraisal of the machine and modern technology. Tschichold affirmedthat type was supposed to be functional instead of decora-tive. As he clearly stated in his book Asymmetric Typography:

Since the freeing of typography from ornament,every element in a job has taken on a new importance; and the interaction of their visual relationships has a greater importance for the general effect than before. The harmonious relation of the parts, being always different, will give every job an individual, yet pleasing appearance, and one which is integrated with its meaning and purpose; instead of the beautifying if work by the fortuitous addition of ornament and other alien elements. 2

The new typography was strongly in favor of asymmetry andbold sans serif typefaces, and this is not just a big coincidence.The Russian Constructivism was also in favor of asymmetry,and at the Bauhaus, classical form was to be abandoned andthe structure and function of everything was to be rethought.Being influenced by these two movements, the new typogra-phy proclaimed by Tschichold has the following characteris-tics: sans serif, no decorative, asymmetric, universal, functional,dynamic, simple and pure.

2. Jan Tschichold. Asymmetric Typography. Translated by Ruari McLean. Toronto,

Canada: T.H. Best Printing Company, 1967.

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6In 1929, Tschichold was attracted on all these new modernideas and he designed a lower case alphabet. Two years later,in 1931 he designed another set of typefaces: Saskia andTransito. Transito is a sans serif in the tradition of Futura Blackand was created for the Amsterdam type foundry. Saskia wascreated for the Schelter & Giesecke foundry of Liepzig and itis also a sans serif, but with much greater calligraphic over-tones than Transito.3 All these fonts clearly reflect the spirit of this new revolutionary era: the New Typography.

Jan Tschichold explained in his book that sans serif is moreexpressive than any other face because its wide range ofweight (light, medium, bold, extra bold, italic) gives every color in the black and white scale. We aim at simplicity: wetherefore require simple and clear type faces. The closest to ourmodern needs is grotesque or sans serif.4

3. Halley, Allan. Typographic Milestones. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.

4. Jan Tschichold. Asymmetric Typography. Translated by Ruari McLean. Toronto,

Canada: T.H. Best Printing Company, 1967.

5. McLean, Ruari. Jan Tschichold: Typographer. Boston: David Godine, 1975.

Jan Tschichold: Transito (top) & Saskia (bottom)

Jan

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At this time, the Nazis condemned him for creating un-German typography and accused him ofKulturbolschevismus. Tshicholds film posters and the wholeNew Typography movement were turned into a political issue.5

Tschichold and his wife were arrested and interned briefly.After learning that his teaching contract had been cancelled,and through the intervention of the Director of the BasleSchool of Arts and Crafts, he took refuge in Switzerland in1933. This could be considered the end of his first period,the New Typography era.

Jan Tschichold

A Radical Change

Tschicholds new life in Switzerland was a struggle at thebeginning, even though he was admitted as a recognizedspecialist and was granted a work permit. Now, hedesigned books for various publishing houses. In 1935he finished Typographishe Gestaltung (TypographicDesign). The book focused on the principles and practice of typography. It was the same size as The NewTypography (A5 format). However, it was different in that it was set in a small size of Bodoni. At this time, he is in a transitional stage and he started using classical fontsin combination with some sans serif fonts.

Tschichold began to use classical fonts while working inSwitzerland because he was almost entirely designingbooks. He had very few opportunities to design posters and commercial advertising jobs. He had taken commis-sions to design mass-market materials textbooks, novels,historical fiction, biographies, etc instead of posters andhis own manuals. Not only was asymmetric treatment farless suitable for book design, but also he found that sincethe Swiss were very conventional, his clients were not sympathetic to the use of advanced asymmetric layouts.He also realized that there were certain parallels betweenthe New Typography and the National Socialism andFascism that the Nazis proclaimed. As he would state later:

obvious similarities consist of the ruthless restriction of typefaces, a parallel to Goebbles infamous Gleichschsltung (Political alignment) and the more or less military arrangement of lines.6

As Ruari McLean said: Certainly from 1935 and possiblyeven earlier, Tschichold was designing some of his worksymmetrically.7

Second Period: The Classical Era

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

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Jan Tschichold

Tschicholds Years in London

After World War II, in September 1946, Tschichold wasinvited by Oliver Simon to join Penguin Books. It is from1947 to 1949 that Tschichold joined this publishing com-pany and traveled to London to become Penguins typogra-phy director. He redesigned the entire collection. One ofthe first things he did at Penguin was to produce a typographic manual more precisely, a small booklet titledPenguin Composition Rules that outlined the basic guidelines for composition and printing uniformity. Thismanual improved the style of the text setting for every lineof type in every Penguin Book. His next immediate stepwas to design a grid for the whole series. Tschichold wasso meticulous with details that he edited every page ofevery book that was produced at Penguin. He sought evenspacing of capital letters, and at the beginning, pages weresent back to the printer with more marks in red than blackink. After a certain time, the printer understood hisrequirements, and the book quality improved.

Tschichold wanted to effectively tackle the problem of unifying and coordinating the efforts with the manufacturers from the point of view if design. Tschichold was also well equipped to advise on the technical aspects of the production and frequently did so.8

After this problem was solved, he then focused on the actual design of the book.

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8. Ibid.

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Jan Tschichold12

The Golden Section has beenreferred as to the Divine

Proportion, the Golden Rectangle, or the Fibonacci Sequence. This proportion has been

demonstrated in the Greek architecture of the Parthenon,

the Renaissance, and used by Le Corbusier in

modern architecture.

Design at Penguin

It is important to note that even though Jan Tschichold setstandards for every detail of Penguin layout, he did notstandardize either the typeface or the layout of title pages.All previous Penguin books were set using Times Roman,and he kept that font but also included other classical typefaces, such as Baskerville, Bembo, Garamond, andCaslon. He also redesigned the watermark. Tschicholdworked at Penguin for 29 months, where the exact numberof title-pages he designed was more than 500. He was incharge of one of the largest book publishing programs inthe world. In December 1949, he returned to Switzerlanddue to the heavy devaluation of the pound and to maintainhis Swiss citizenship. In Basle, he took a job as a designconsultant for named F. Hoffman-LaRoche, a pharmaceuti-cal company. He also continued writing and designingbooks on printing and book design. He already had plentyof experience in calligraphy, printing, book design, and hekept researching in these subjects. His research includedthe history of Chinese color-printing techniques. In addi-tion, he did some drawings to illustrate his theories onproportion and layout using the Golden Section. One of his major interests was the considerations underlying thechoice of margins throughout the history of the book, both written and printed. On this subject he published Die Proportionen des Buches (The Proportions of theBook) in 1956.It is obvious but worthy to emphasize, that at this time theeuphoria of the machine had already passed, and the newtypography was no longer Tschicholds focus. We could say that true to character, he performed a radical change in the 1940s where he came to the conclusion that the newtypography was inherently Fascist. On his article inresponse to Max Bill, he clearly admitted it:

Max Bill: Swiss-born German artist, a product of

the Bauhaus generation. He was a virtuous designer

and creative artist. His work ischaracterized by a clarity of

design and precise proportions.

We saw aesthetic models in industrial products, and, believing the sans serif to be the simplest type face (wrongly, as it turned out) we declared it to be the modern face. At the same time, we a group of artists, attempted to use asymmetry to oust symmetrical design, which was hardly ever employed in an intelligible manner. Everything symmetrical was unthinkingly assigned to the propaganda methods of political absolutism and declared obsolete.9

Sabon

Sabon was created to meet special technical requirements.In 1960 a group of German printers commissionedTschichold to make drawings of a font that was able to fit three printing methods: Linotype, Monotype and handcomposition. However, before analyzing Sabons uniquecharacteristics, we need to consider first the differencesbetween these printing methods.

In hand composition, type was set letter by letter and lineby line. When it was necessary to justify a line, additionalspaces were created by inserting metal spacing material. Itwas tedious and very time consuming. Linotype composi-tion was the first grand step toward typographic automa-tion. It produced a single line of type to a predeterminedlength specified by the keyboard operator. In Monotypesetting one character is cast at a time. This system is farsuperior and more efficient than the Linotype which castsraised letters on lead slugs the width of the line. Monotype

is a two-part machine: a keyboard for the punching of apaper tape that is transferred to a caster, providing thedirections for casting individual pieces of type. Just likehandset type, corrections could be made by changing individual letters instead of complete lines, the monotypematrix held many more characters, and the casting machi-ne was relatively fast (casting 150 characters per minute).

Knowing the technology very well, Tschichold needed todesign a typeface suitable for production in identical formfor mechanical composition for the three systems mentio-ned above. In addition, these printers who commissionedhim suggested that the font should be easy, pleasant toread and suitable for all printing purposes. They recommended something in the style of MonotypeGaramond, but asked for it to be approximately 5%narrower for reasons of economy.10 Having all of thesespecial considerations as a must-have requirements,Tschichold designed his later typefaces in a new classicalstyle. In 1966, Sabon was released.

Why Sabon?

It was named after Jacques Sabon, the Lyons-born typefounder who worked in Frankfurt and may have broughtsome of the Claude Garamonds matrices in Frankfurtfrom Garamonds executor.

9. Ibid.10. Ibid.

vSFm

Jan Tschichold14

Sabon Classification

This face itself is a version of Garamond. However its originality lies in that, as already mentioned above, it overcame the technical problems of three sets of body-widths needed for three different typesetting systems. It also has unique characteristics.

it is important for designers to comprehend the nature and capabilities of typographic technolo-gies, for this understanding provides a basis for a thoughtful blending of design and production.11

Sabon is classified as an Old Style face. Old Style letter-forms have the weight stress of rounded forms at an angle,as in handwriting. The serifs are bracketed, and the top serifs on the lowercase letters are at an angle. If we use the well-known classification system adapted from theAssociation Typographique Internationale (ATypI), Sabon isclassified under the main group of Rounded typefaces, andwithin that, in the sub-group of Geralde Typaces.

Geralde Typeface Characteristics

As already mentioned above, Sabon was based onGaramond, a Venetian font of the 17th Century (also classified as an old style type with more contrast, a somewhat variable axis, and more italic slope).

The main characteristics of Geralde typefaces are inclinedaxis of the letters to the left (see p and b), upper wedgeshaped serifs of the minuscules (see b), rounded transitionsbetween main strokes and (bracketed) serifs.In addition, Geralde typefaces show more contrast betweenthick and thin strokes than Venetian and the cross stroke of

Old Sytle type began with thedesign of Francesco Griffo, who

worked for Aluds Manutius during1940s. Griffos design evolved fromearlier Italian type designs. His Old

Style capitals were influenced bycarved Roman capitals; lowercasewere inspired by fifteenth-century

humanistic styles, based in the earlier Carolingian minuscules.

11. Carter, Rob; Ben Day and Phillip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985.

1 descender2 x heigtht3 caps line4 apex 5 cross bar6 arm7 eye8 leg9 ascender

10 stem

12. McLean, Ruari. Jan Tschichold: Typographer. Boston: David Godine, 1975.

the lower case e is horizontal. Jan Tschichold made hisworking drawings in a size about twenty times larger thanthe 10 point size in which the first trial font was made.

These drawings were made expressly for photographicreproduction: no hand punch-cutter was used. The variousconsiderations and considerable technical limitations of thethree manufacturing process, such as varying point bodies,kerning restrictions, different unit systems, and duplexingcharacter sets that had to be contended with, were success-fully overcome by Jan Tschichold. In 1966 his completeddesign was released.

As mentioned by Ruari McLean: during all his career he had been devoted to the search for how to make the fullest use of machineprocesses to produce human and logical printing.12

This is probably the reason why Sabon was so successful inmeeting technical requirements.

Sabon is available in Roman, Italic and Semi-bold. TheSemi Bold has no italic, but can be used either in conjunc-tion with the Roman as a normal bold or independently.

11 tail12 counter13 shoulder14 spur15 ear16 double storey17 capital18 lower case19 vertex20 spine

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gs Conclusion

After seeing the two very different periods in Tschicholdswork in their particular context, it is easy to understandthe reasons why the New Typography happened in the firstplace, and not vice versa. Historical facts, as well as artisticmovements, played an important role in the designerschoice. Throughout Tschicholds life we saw how from hisearly childhood he had the opportunity to be in contactwith letters and calligraphy. Then taking classes in thefield, and also learning Latin and Greek, made him furtherdevelop his studies in calligraphy and typography. Not onlydid he study the art of typography, the special circumstan-ces of each particular era made him adopt a particular andpeculiar style completely different in both periods.Analyzing only his typeface would not have been very comprehensive, since the rest of the facts were major con-tributors that helped define his style as well. To conclude,see some extracts from Jan Tschicholds own commentsabout the New Typography and his fundamental reasonsabout going back to the classical style.

Jan Tschichold18

Jan Tschicholds response to Max Bill comments on the New Typography

In this lecture I criticized the New Typography, which I helped to disseminate and therefore myself also severely. What I actually said (to quote correctly the word Bill put in my mouth) was: The New Typography has indeed not yet been superseded, but it has proved itself to be suitable only for advertising and jobbing. For the book, and particularly for literature, it is completely unsuitable.

But I am not merely a theorist, as Bill in fact is; I can look back on more than twenty years experience as a typographical designer. From 1920 to 1925 I taught lettering at the Academy for Graphic Arts un Leipzig; I also taught typography and lettering for seven years at the Munich Masters Printers School and have been employed ever since coming to Basle in 1933 as designer to two large printing firms. From 1919 until now I have designed not only innumerable pieces of advertising and other printed matter but also hundreds of books of every kind.

The younger generation of compositors cannot easily imagine the condition of German (and Swiss) typography around 1923, before the advent of the New Typography. The average display advertisement and printed job used a variety of typefaces inconceivable today and was uninhibited by any rules of order. We saw aesthetic models in industrial products and, believing the sans serif to be the simplest typeface (wrongly as it turned out), we declared it to be the modern face. At the same time we, a group of artists, attempted to use asymmetry to oust symmetrical design.

13. Ibid.

The new or functional typography is well suited for publicizing industrial products (it has the same origin), and it fulfills that purpose now as well as then. Yet its means of expression are limited because it strives solely for puritanical clarity and purity.

but there are many typographical problems which cannot be solved on such regimented linesMany jobs, especially books, are far too complicated for the simplifying procedures of the New Typography.I have myself, long before Bill, designed a number of catalogues in the New Typography style which even today I consider suitable, but not exclusively so.Obeying good rules of composition and book design in the manner of traditional typography is not putting the clock back; but an eccentric style of setting is almost always detectable.

[Bill] holds the sans serif to be still the best but reading long pages set in it is a real torture. [sans] is useful for title and only short paragraphs of text, since it lacks sufficient articulation and indispensable serif, together with unvarying stroke weights, make it difficult to read.The best, most legible types that are available to us are the classical faces (e.g Bembo, Garamond, Ehrhardt, Van Dijck, Cason, Bell, Baskerville, Walbaum) and those new ones that differ but little from them (Perpetua, Lutetia, Romulus and several others).Since nothing new remains for ever, the appearance of the typography will continue to change.13

Jan Tschichold

Bibliography

Carter, Rob; Day Ben and Phillip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form

and Communication. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985

Haley, Allan. Typographic Milestones. New York: Van Nostrand

Reinhold, 1993.

McLean, Ruari. Jan Tschichold: Typographer. Boston: David Godine,

1975.

Meggs, Phillip B. A History of Graphic Design. Third Edition.

New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

Tschichold, Jan. Asymmetric Typography. Translated by Ruari

McLean. Toronto, Canada: T. H. Best Printing Company , 1967.

Tschichold, Jan. The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of

Good Design. Translated by Hajo Hadeler. Washington: Hartley

& Mark Publishers, Inc., 1975.

Tschichold, Jan. The New Typography: A Handbook for Modern

Designers. Translated by Ruari McClean. Berkely and Los

Angeles, California, University of California Press Ltd. 1995.

Journals on Line

Communications Art Magazine on line

http://www.commarts.com/ca/magazine/book/9658.html

(access on Sep. 2004)

Desktop Publishing

http://desktoppub.about.com/od/tschichold/ (access on Sep. 2004)

Ewers Architecture

http://www.ewersarchiecture.com/golden_section.htm

(access on Sep. 2004)

Identifont

http://www.identifont.com/show?14O (access on Sep. 2004)

redSun. com

http://redsun.com/type/classification/ (access on Sep. 2004)

Riba bookshops

http://www.ribabookshops.com/site/viewtitle.asp?sid=&pid=4738

(access on Sep. 2004)

unistiposduros.com

http://www.unostiposduros.com/paginas/maes11.html (access on

Sep. 2004)

This book was designed by Rosana Caffarena for Art 430: Advance

Typography under the direction of Professor Margaret Re. It was crea-

ted on an e-Mac, running System OS X, using QuarkXpress 6.0,

Illustrator 10 and Photoshop 7. It was printed on MBC Precision Image

bureau and bound by the designer. The book has been typeset using

Sabon, and Myrad, designed by Jan Tschichold and Carol Twombly. The

text paper is 39 pound Recycle gloss white, and the cover paper is 39

pound Recycle gloss white. Printed in a limited edition of 2 copies.