kabel

As the tenth typeface created by German designer Rudolf Koch, Kabel was released by the Klingspor foundry in 1927. This geometric sans-serif typeface was named for the trans-Atlantic telephone cable completed by Bell System engineers in 1927, which provided a commercial telephone service between New York and London.

During the late 1920s, every major German type foundry was actively working on a new kind of sans serif design based on geometric character shapes. Ludwig and Mayer released Erbar, the Bauer foundry was developing Futura, and Berthold was busy creating Berthold Grotesque. To remain competitive, Klingspor would have to release a similar type. Ultimately they employed Koch to design Kabel.

Upon looking at Kabel, a number of influences can be detected. Firstly, Koch was greatly familiar with the Bauhaus, a school focusing on crafts,

fine arts, and design, which operated in Germany from 1919 to 1933. Kabel bears some resemblence to Futura, also released in 1927, however Feder Schrift and Erbar liken to it more so than Futura. Kabel draws a great deal from the Expressionism movements in Germany, rather than the Modernism movements of that time. This can be noticed in the forms of the characters. The geometric characteristics of Kabel were an experiment of sorts for Koch, who prided himself on his calligraphic ability.

The stroke weights of Kabel are more varied than most geometric sans-serifs, and the terminus of vertical strokes are cut to a near eight-degree angle. This has the effect of not quite sitting on the baseline and making for a more animated, less static feeling than Futura. Uppercase characters are broad and show influence of monumental roman capitals. The capital “W” is splayed and the “G” has no terminal. Lowercase characters “a,” “e,” and “g” show a link with Carolingian script. A number of humanistic features have been integrated within the typeface, causing Kabel to be functional in text and elegant in display work. While Kabel was geometric in form, Koch based its character proportions on his own artistic sensibilities, and perhaps even a creative whim or two. Kabel’s character shapes and proportions can be traced to ancient Greek lapidary letters, Venetian old style type designs, and, of course, calligraphy.

The rights to the original Koch design were eventually transferred to the Stempel type foundry. In 1975, under a special license from Stempel, ITC commissioned Victor Caruso to revive the design for phototypesetting. Caruso was charged with the task of building a well-integrated type family suitable for text composition, but without losing the charm and vitality of the original design.

As a virtue of its large x-height and carefully weighted family range, Caruso’s design for ITC is more legible as a text typeface than its predecessor. Display copy, however, is what Kabel is all about. ITC Kabel creates strong headlines and delivers a clear message. Its lighter weights approach elegance, while the heaviest dominate the page and demand that the reader take notice.

ITC Kabel is available in Book, Medium, Demi, Bold, and Ultra weights. All are truly ITC classic designs.

aboutkabel

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»Poster for Sophia Coppola’s 2003 film entitled “Lost in Translation.”

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Designed by Chermayeff & Geismar, this logo for the National Broadcasting Company was unveiled at the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration in 1986.

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The Kabel typeface is used throughout MONOPOLY, labeling areas of the board, property card details, and the box.

Rudolf Koch was an extraordinary artist, callig-rapher, teacher, book designer, typographer, illustrator, and illuminator. Considered to be one of the most influential figures in modern calligraphy, Koch, together with his contem-porary Edward Johnston, played a significant role in rekindling interest in broad-edged pen writing during the twentieth century.

Rudolf Koch was born in Nüremberg, Germany on November 20, 1876.

Due to his father’s untimely death he had to be removed from the Gymnasium, the German high school, and placed in a trade school. Koch was ten years old at the time. At the age of sixteen he was offered his first apprenticeship. In 1892, a friend of his father’s took him into his business, a factory for metal wares in Hanau. Koch worked at the factory eleven hours a day, attended the Art Academy in his free time, and studied at night. With the encouragement of a

teacher at the academy, Koch left the factory before his fourth year was up and went to study full time at the Nüremberg Arts and Crafts School. After three semesters, Koch decided to leave the school and become a drawing teacher in Munich. Unfortunately Koch was not welcomed by the tenured faculty in Munich and after two semesters decided to seek employment as a draftsman and painter in a lithographic printing house in Leipzig. Koch took on a few design jobs in Leipzig, but none proved too successul. In 1898, Koch spent the last of his savings on a train back home to Nüremberg, where he did not receive as cheerful of a homecoming as he had hoped. Though the majority of his friends and family regarded him as an unsuccessful, would-be genius, Koch persevered in his drawings and designs. Eventually succeeded in obtaining a position at the Leipzig Bookbinding Company, where he worked from 1899 to 1902.

In 1903, Koch married Rosa Koch (no relation), daughter of a printer of copper engravings. Around this time, Koch began his first attempts to create letterforms with the intention of designing type. Little did he know, this would prove to be a turning point in his career.

Koch began copying various kinds of letters from newspapers and eventually developed a style of lettering. At the age of 30, Koch was hired by the Klingspor Foundry as a type designer, a position he would retain for the rest of his life. Koch’s type designs, though too Germanic to be popular in the United States, served to re-establish a close relationship between printing and the written letter. He would produce, in all, more than twenty type designs. Calligraphy soon proved to be a passion for Koch, and in 1908 he took on the task of teaching a graphic arts and lettering class at the Offenbach School of Arts and Crafts. In 1910, Koch developed his first typeface, Koch Bold. In his teaching he made a conscious effort to use texts which inspired the letterer.

Koch held this position until 1915 when he was drafted into the German army to serve in World War I. He was 39 years old at the time. During the war Koch kept a journal containing writings and sketches that recorded his experiences. In the fall of 1934 (the year of his death) this bound manuscript was published by the Insel Verlag in Leipzig and entitled “Die Kriegserlebnisse des Grenadiers Rudolf Koch.” In 1918 after several months in a military

rudolfkoch

hospital, Koch returned to his family and his classes at Offenbach. The war brought about a strengthening of his religious feelings, and Koch became deeply interested in Biblical texts. His manner of lettering changed and the evolution was ended with his turning from the hand-lettered book. After 1921 it was replaced by the broadside.

In 1918, Koch founded the Offenbach Schreiber (Offenbach Scribemen), a group of scribes who formed a workshop under his tutelage. The first woodcuts by Koch were made in 1919. In 1921 he started the work of spinning, weaving, and embroidering of tapestries and rugs. His first metal works were also made during this year. During the course of the same year, the Offenbach School of Arts and Crafts offered him and attic room and it was here that The Workshop was begun. The Werkstatt was to endure until the year of Koch’s death in 1934, and it was here, in collaboration with other skilled artists and artisans, that Koch’s most ambitious projects were created.

From 1922 to 1929, Koch worked on the “Blumenbuch” (Book of Flowers). This book was created from a compilation of sketches Koch made while on walks with his children. Hoping other people would find joy in the book, Koch and his team made woodcuts of Koch’s drawings.

In 1925 preparations were started for a Map of Germany, which Koch finished in 1935 with the collaboration of Fritz Kredel, Berthold Wolpe, and Richard Bender. This unconventional map was comprised of towns, land features, and the coats of arms of the different German states. Quotations from German authors were placed in different important spots on the map.

“The Four Gospels” were hand set in 1926 at the printing shop of the Klingspor type foundry and printed for Koch. The typeface Jessen Schrift was used for the first time with this project. The Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of the Apostles, and the Revelation of St. John were printed at Offenbach two years later.

In 1932 Koch, who suffered from leukemia, began to have headaches and had to rest often. For his friends he created beautiful manuscript leaves which they saw only after his death. He died two years later at the age of 58, and is buried in Frankfurt am Main.

A diagram displaying the proportions of various letterforms of the Kabel typeface. Some speculate that Koch designed the letters according to quartered sections of a square.

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An image of Rudolf Koch, hard at work at the Klingspor type foundry located in Offenbach am Main, Germany.

Designed by Stephanie Netherton

The body text of this booklet is set in Monotype Kabel Book 11/12 justified. Monotype Kabel displays the smaller x-height and elongated ascenders, which differ from the ITC design. Text on the cover page and section headings are set in ITC Kabel Medium. The page size is 6.8 inches wide by 11 inches long. The page size and overall grid (shown on this page) were directly influenced by the Golden Ratio (≈ 1.6180339887), which greatly interested designer Rudolf Koch.

Works Cited“1927: Transoceanic Telephone Service.” at&t. 10 September 2009 <http://www.corp.att.com/

attlabs/reputation/timeline/27atlan.html>.

“Featured Font: Kabel.” The Cap’M. 2 March 2009. 10 September 2009 <http://www.thecapm. com/?p=281>.

Greensfelder, Tom. “Meditation.” Letter Arts Review, 1996, vol. 13, iss. 1: 12–15.

Guggenheim, Siegfried. “Rudolf Koch.” Print, 1969, vol. 23: 39–47.

“ITC Classics: ITC Kabel.” International Typeface Corporation. 10 September 2009 <http://www. itcfonts.com/Fonts/Classics/Kabel.htm>.

Kredel, Fritz. “Rudolf Koch, as I Remember Him.” Letter Arts Review, 1996, vol. 13, iss. 1: 8–11.

Wronker, Lili. “Rudolf Koch: Life, Craft, and Art.” Letter Arts Review, 1996, vol. 13, iss. 1: 2–26.