Last week I picked at things that irritated me about the 1987 first English translation of Jan Tschichold’s The New Typography (Die neue Typographie). To be fair, it now appears to me that I reacted—mostly to Robin Kinross’ excellent Introduction—to the statement that the typesetting of the translation remained true to 1928’s original. On further review, I think I made a too-hasty judgment on the whole notion of a “new typography”. In fact, the heavy ornamentalism that I agree dominated, specifically, the book making and, generally, the typesetting of the day, deserved to go.
My last reservation, quite simply, concerns books full of san serif type. To which I just say, “No, don’t! Please!!” And, fortunately, most everyone seems to agree.
But as I got deeper into the book—and it is a relatively slim volume—I began to see virtues that won me over. So much so, that I plan an homage to “die neue typographie”. Particularly in the shortest of pieces, postcards, Tschichold’s examples appealed to me. I think I will appropriate the design of one such postcard quite freely—on page 59; the caption reads, “THEO VAN DOESBURG: Postcard. Black and red on white—and give it a liberal interpretation.
It seems the least I can do after I was so dismissive the first time I wrote anything about The New Typography.
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