Revolutionäre der Typografie
Brought together within a European avant-garde network, the “model collection” of the Swiss-German book and type designer Jan Tschichold in the holdings of the Library of Design Basel contains around 1,500 small-format prints. It includes famous designers from the Bauhaus environment such as László Moholy-Nagy and Herbert Bayer, as well as artists such as Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitzky – all pioneers of modern graphic design. This publication documents the complete collection and makes it possible for the first time to study the originals, which make the spirit of optimism of that era tangible and which are usually only depicted in black and white or in heavily altered colors in Tschichold’s books. This broadens the view of a network of 45 designers and a chapter of the European avant-garde that directly influenced the “Swiss Style” of the post-war period.
The book was edited by Patrick Rössler and Mirjam Brodbeck, designed by icona basel, and published by Wallstein Verlag.
1 Comment on “Revolutionäre der Typografie”
I always hope that books about this particular period of typography use a certain variety of fonts, which can refer to primitive grotesques or to some highly used pair, such as the “geometric-clarendon”.
But the use of a typeface like Axia here is surprisingly good, as is the whole design. It shows that typography doesn’t always have to hark back to the past and that it can even use more organic forms than those preferred by the so-called swiss-style. Congratulations on your work!
(I’d never seen the photo of Tschichold used on the cover).