OK! So, I've taken my medicine and it tasted terrible like it always does. This particular medicine is from Christopher Burke through Hyphen Press in London, 2007—it's what is known as a "gorgeous book". My problems have nothing to do with the writing, or the production, they have to do with the content. The book does have a very nice feel, it's a comfortable read, the typography is fine (though not beautiful).
The book only covers the ugly stuff
To quote from Christopher's Prologue, "This book deals with Tschichold principally as a chronicler and practitioner of New Typography, up to the point where its last traces disappear from his work: in other words, the first half of his career..."
My problem is that the New Typography talked about here is the source of much of the ugliness of the 20th century. This is that ghastly stuff with crude sans serif type and sparse, barren layouts. It is idolized by the modernists. In fact, Jan is almost worshipped by many. This is a real shame, for Jan was an amazing calligrapher and typographer. The New Typography (which he later repented of) is the worst and ugliest portion of his career.
Is this book important?
It certainly is. it really helped me clarify in my own mind what I so intensely dislike about much of typography from World War I onward. This New Typography (which now looks incredibly dated because it was fashion and politics not true excellent design) is still the source of much of the ugliness we are assaulted with in the media today—especially in print.
Chapter one about his early years was wonderful. I was entranced by the calligraphy that flowed from his hand. You can see an example of that up top of this post. However, chapter 2 immediately dove into his political and revolutionary viewpoints coupled with his aggressive self-promotion of the Constructivist art theories that led into the New Typography. That stuff was and is ghastly. It was supposed to be that way, as a rebellion against all that was traditional. Now, I'll admit, they were recovering from the excesses of the Victorian era and Art Nouveau (sp?). A massive correction was certainly needed. However, as usual, such a strong reaction drives things to the other extreme and this so-called New Typography was (and is) certainly that.
He designed some wonderful fonts in those early years, but they were tangental to his political focus. You can see Saskia at the top. What the book did is give me a hunger to see his good stuff after he was reborn out of the ghastly new Typography. It was certainly influential, but I really dislike him for that.
4 comments:
Even in ‘The New Typography’ amidst all the prejudice there is the admission that sans serif is inadequate. Being young and ignorant, instead of working backward from that observation and so revising his doctrine, he inserted some yet-to-be-invented ‘sans serif’ into the doctrine.
But it is better to make serious mistakes and learn from them than not to make mistakes and so learn almost nothing.
Yes, I have no fault with Jan. He matured. World fashion, on the other hand, remained stuck on its agenda and used his New Typography for its own purposes. I was surprised so (one) see how good he was, and (two) see the obvious growth past the New Typography. I wish this book had covered that. Do you know of a book that covers that later part of his life well?
Funny, when I first read Tchichold's Die neue typographie (translated, of course) I felt much the same way you do. But we need to put it in context and remember what he was reacting against: the horrible German black letter type of his day.
From that point of view, the new typography, concerned as it was with taking unnecessary and excessive ornamentation out of typesetting, was not such an awful idea. Perhaps, as a book designer, I see things differently, but my first obligation is to make readable pages and bring my authors' works to readers. The neue typography went a long way toward getting typographers onto that track.
Yup! I agree, in general. Things had gotten pretty far afield by the early 20th century.
The pendulum went way too far the other way though.
Tossed the baby with the bath in many ways.
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