A Glimpse of Modernist Type Design in Germany

This set of seven type specimen sample brochures, released by the Schriftguss A-G foundry in Dresden in the late 1930s, are not only great examples of modernist design, but a nice record of foundry types being created in Germany at that time. Many of these fonts such as Helion, Diamant, and Duplex appear just as modern today as when they were released in 1937. The entire lot of these four-page type specimen brochures are available here.

Luc Devroye's extensive informational archive of typography lists a number of the type designers associated with the Schriftguss foundry, and select pages from specimen catalogs. Also included is the original Schriftguss A-G logo.

At the end of WWII in 1945, Schriftguss and two other type foundries merged and were incorporated into the state-run East German foundry, VEB Typoart. The Typoart designers were a dedicated and passionate group who enjoyed a certain amount of artistic freedom, and chiefly responsible for developing typefaces for East German publishers. Shortly after the reunification of Germany in 1990, Typoart was sold into private hands who eventually dissolved the company in 1995. Unfortunately, the copyright status of many of the Typoart font designs remains unclear, but you can read a fascinating account at PingMag of their legacy and some independent efforts by various groups, including Typoart Friends who wish to further a campaign to document and revive these fonts and credit the individual designers.   

The 1952 Typewriter Type Issue

In June 1952, Print magazine devoted an entire issue to the typewriter, "a machine to supersede the pen." The front cover, designed by George A. Shealy, cleverly illustrates the concept of an "imprint" from the artwork on the back cover. The endsheets are a nice pattern of alphabetical U&lc typewriter text. The design and layout of the remaining interior pages are far less interesting, but the content compensates for this shortfall. It begins with a short historical background of the typewriter, including an amusing letter Mark Twain typed for his brother in 1874, about "this new fangled writing machine." Historical sidenote: Twain's letter was typed just prior to his investment in the Paige Compositor, an early keyboard-operated typesetting machine that was soon overshadowed by the Linotype machine.

Because of the variable widths of the letters in our Roman alphabet, monospaced typewriter fonts have always had their limitations. I thought it was interesting to learn that the Crandall Typewriter Company was working on a proportionately spaced typewriter as early as 1881, but it was over fifty years later before even a modest success was achieved. In 1941, the legendary type designer W.A. Dwiggins spelled out some of his own challenges in designing new faces for the modern typewriter. He acknowledged the typewriter was for writing letters and not for composing books, and therefore shouldn't parody them. 

   

Companies could choose to have their trademark assigned to a customized key on their keyboard. Is that a real trademark, or the first smiley face emoticon above?

Ornamental typewriting was "used as training practice for aspiring stenographers." Had I known that artistic stenography was part of their job description, I might have considered this vocation. I do especially love the decorative borders created by the overlapping characters.

Remington Rand developed The Dual-Rite attachment to apply the first bold-weight strokes to specific typewriter characters, giving seniors everywhere even more an incentive to type everything in boldface ALL CAPS.

The Justowriter adopted the use of code for aligning text on a page, a complex maneuver at the time.

Inspector Remington here had the envious job as a poison pen typewriter sleuth. Below is a vast range of showings of the many faces designed for Remington and IBM typewriters.

Chalk Lettering Goodness

I previously featured another of Dana Tanamachi's brilliant wine labels for Nagging Doubt back in June '11. And I have a nagging suspicion this won't be the last. This girl just continues to amaze me with her seemingly effortless and ephemeral chalk lettering. Below are just a few stills from her newly-launched site for Tanamachi Studio—chalk full of more fresh work and videos. How often are you able to be the fly on the wall watching such lovely lettering goodness? Not only is Tanamachi a great artist, but she's a great archivist as well. Lucky for us!

The new logo for Tanamachi Studio was designed by John Passafiume, a Sr. Designer at Louise Fili Ltd. 

1863 Book of Snowflakes

Snowflake lettering as decorative as the ice crystals themselves.
     Snow-flakes, A Chapter From the Book of Nature was first published in Boston in 1863 by the evangelical American Tract Society. The fanciful gothic blackletter foil-stamped imprint on the cover is repeated in the title page below. The book itself does not attempt to explore any scientific research, although many fine illustrations of snowflake structures are included which were drawn with the aid of a microscope by; no lie, a Mr. James Glaisher, Esq. The tone of the entire text takes on religious overtones, with chapter titles such as "Perfection, Purity, Grace and Beauty", but the accuracy of Mr. Glaisher's illustrations reasonably illustrate the variety of ice crystal formations.
     As an aside, the first photographs of the ephemeral crystals were made in 1885 by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley of Vermont. After making this his life's work, he later published a monograph illustrated with 2500 snow crystal photographs which became the definitive guide to their structures. He donated many of his glass plates to the Buffalo Museum of Science which can be viewed in their digital archive.        

Initial Snow Caps

Each chapter opening in Snow-flakes begins with wood engraved scenes of ice, frost and snow-festooned initial cap letters. Not likely the designs of Mr. Glaisher, but appreciated much the same. Find the entire text here.
::Thank you Present & Correct!  

Fine Lettering Never Goes Out of Date

Out of print, maybe. Out of date, never! There is no shelf life on fine lettering. These book titles and more are shared by sign painter and pinstriper, Rodney Vicik of Red Rocket Signs on his Flickrstream. 
     As an interesting side note, the book immediately above, titled The Elements of Lettering is co-authored by John Howard Benson (1901-1956), artist, designer, calligrapher and famed stonecarver at The John Stevens Shop in Newport RI. Originally published in 1940, this book is a practical and historical guide for lettering. Benson and his family were the subject of one of my favorite columns which I wrote nearly two years ago in this space (later recast as an article for AIGA). It is the remarkable story of a family of truly noted artists and craftsmen; two of which received MacArthur genius grants for their work. Through John Howard Benson's legacy, his family has gone on to become their own solo art colony. A year or so ago, I had the good fortune to visit JHBs son John and grandson Nick who now runs the shop in Newport, and gained such a respect for the accomplished work they each do. Days later, I was in a used bookstore in Manchester MA, and without thought in mind, I happened to find Benson's lettering book. It was a later 1950 edition printed on poor wood pulp paper, but I treasure it all the same.