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.

19th Century Alphabet Portfolio

A portfolio of late Victorian alphabets and monograms containing a set of 30 lithograph cards published by Friedr. Bartholomaus of Frankfurt Germany. The front cover is a chromolithograph print and this sweet 5x7" portfolio still has the original red ribbons to tie it together. And it too, can be yours for a price.
::Available from Wayside Mews via Antiques Atlas.   

A Signmaker's Textbook

Der Praktische Schildermaler (The Practical Signmaker), Series 2, by Hans J. Jedlitschka, 1910, printed by Friedrich Wolfrum and Co., of Vienna and Leipzig. This volume is a portfolio of 32 color lithographed plates which are particularly decorative examples of advertising signs from stationery, floral shops, craftsman, photo studios, restaurants and more. I have been unable to track down much information about the designer, Herr Jedlitschka, but Damon of New Bohemia Signs wrote an enlightening piece on him and his work about 18 months ago. He was also kind enough to post a number of images from his own set of Jedlitschkas' prints on Flickr, as he feels they should be made available so others might equally appreciate them. The multi-colored plates are lavishly printed, often combined with gold and silver. Images here are only from Volume 2, which I first discovered when doing some light window-shopping here not too long ago. Hans Jedlitschka was indeed quite an accomplished designer, illustrator, and typographer. I would so love to see all of his original prints in analog time someday. I get weak in the knees just thinking about it. ; )  

Below are just a few examples of Der Praktische Schildermaler from daemonsquire's Flickrset.

Lettering For The Trades

Lovely lettering sample book published in Rotterdam in 1900 for signpainters, stonecutters, lithographers and architects. Kindly shared on Piet Schreuder's Flickrstream.