Same Bold Stories? exhibition

Same Bold Stories? Type Design by Women and Queers in the 20th and 21st Centuries is an exhibition shown in Offenbach am Main, Germany, through November 24th. The concept for the exhibition was developed in co-operation between the Klingspor Museum (Dr. Dorothee Ader, Valerij Ledenev, Tatjana Prenzel), the design studio turbo type (Laura Brunner, Leonie Martin) and the feminist collective +FEM (Kristina Mukhacheva, Naomi Rado).

From an article written by turbo type for Fontstand (with added links):

For a long time, the history of type design and typography was written from a purely male perspective. Research in the field of type design now increasingly focuses on women, who were already active in the type production at the beginning of the 20th century without really achieving visibility.

This new exhibition presents a critical view of the Klingspor Museum’s type-related collections, which largely cover the period between 1900 and 1950. Where are the female positions that supplement the existing historiography of type design? Only a few women, such as Anna Simons, Erika Giovanna Klien, or Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse achieved wider recognition during their lifetime. In addition, there are type designers such as Elizabeth Friedlander, Ilse Schüle, Anna Maria Schildbach, Maria Ballé and numerous students from the lettering classes of Rudolf von Larisch in Vienna and Rudolf Koch in Offenbach whose works are included in the collection. Their biographies and practices are being brought into focus for the first time.

The title is set in two weights from Laura Meseguer’s Sisters. The “clouds” with numbers highlighting the poor representation of women in design use Margo+Beuys by Giulia Boggio.

See also the post about the accompanying publication.