#tschichold

THERE WAS SO MUCH IN THIS LECTURE! First of all, I didn’t realise how *subtly* mathematics has managed to make its way into design, communication design specifically. It was a subject I always neglected in high school, yet am relying on it to help make my project documents look precise and establish a hierarchy.

So here we are again, looking at Jan Tschichold’s mathematical proportions, instead now gaining an understanding of how this application can create layout in order to establish superiority and a focal point(s). I researched more into his manual for designers, The New Typography and the impact it’s had on grid structure for contemporary designers today. His book was split into two parts but still organised around these principles:

Asymmetric balance of elements

Content designed by hierarchy

Intentional white space utilisation

Sans serif typography

The first part of this book delves into the notion that photography is the preferred method for illustration, supported with Sans serif as being the only face that compliments such a medium. I found this very interesting to note as being a realist, I like to see things for what they are instead of fabricated, filtered compositions which is why I have always had such a passion for photography - there is only limited manipulation that can be achieved. 

The second part explores the practical matters of type layouts for different proportions. Tschichold referred to the space used by the type but also the space that isn’t used and how to bring in empty space to balancing the two elements on a page. 

“empty space is part of design”

On one page of The New Typography that Andy showed in the lecture, displays a red cross over a two page spread (yes, the red cross was printed onto the page) further showing Tschichold’s urgency towards implementing modernist design principles.

Since commencing my study at RMIT, I have learnt to appreciate negative space more and have neglected previous habits of adding borders and filling in every component to my composition. I’m finally starting to follow the less is more rule. 

One other thing that Andy and Karen touched on was reflecting on the ancient modes of inscription compared to contemporary. They referred back to an earlier lecture on how little structure there is as well as limited space on ancient tablets to draw an image, as opposed to contemporary design. Capital letters and emojis now dictate our messages and the meanings we wish to generate.

SOURCES: http://www.designhistory.org/Avant_Garde_pages/DieNeueType.html

IMAGES: https://gurcanartdesignandcontext2.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/jan-tschichold-3.jpg

asymmetric masterpiece

happy 275th!

happy birthday johann wolfgang von goethe, born 28 august 1749.

owl forme 2

for details of jan tschichold’s aphorism & the original, letterpress version vide ‹owl forme›.

tschichold’s sabon

1st illustration: laid-in slip from jan tschichold’s Leben und Bedutung des Schriftschneiders Jakob Sabon [d. stempel ag & linontype gmbh, 1969], promotional for the release of the sabon typeface family.

2nd illustration: facsimile setting of the insert copy in linotype’s digital reissue of sabon—sabon next.

sabon was tschichold’s version of a classic garamond roman & granjon italic pairing. a technical achievement in the late 1960s as tschichold created faces that produced equivalent composition on monotype & linotype, or handset stempel foundry type: composition from the three could be interchanged or intermixed. the major drawback being the italic was limited by the linotype machine’s inability to cast kerned sorts & a further limitation on the set widths for italic glyphs, which had to map to the roman widths. tschichold found a happy median in his italic producing, for editorial purposes, an adequate mate to his garamond. for the digital reissue, linotype sabon next, jean françois porchez resolved the constraints & rendered glyphs more to his vision for this noble pairing.  in the first garamond-granjon revival, atf garamond, the trade name makes no indication of granjon as engraver of the italic, & the misnamed roman was actually recutting of a later roman, i.e. not cut by garamond; monotype’s garamond recutting followed suit. the error occurred due to the mislabeling as «garamond 1540» by france’s imprimerie national of their caractères de l’université; this remained undiscovered until a few years after these seminal revivals. in the Fleuron beatrice warde, writing under the nome-de-plume paul beaujon, showed unequivocally that these early garamond revivals were actually based upon the roman cut by the printer jean jannon of sedan c. 1621 [«The ‘Garamond’ Types, Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources considered», Fleuron, no. 5, 1926, pp.131-79]. & this convention continued: many later jannon adaptations were issued with a «garamond» trade name. in «sabon» tschichold found a perfect trade name for this classic pairing.  jacques sabon was a puch-engraver & type-caster from lyon; his birthdate is unknown but he died in 1580. the first printer of frankfurt was christian egenolff; he founded his printing office there in 1530, which attached a foundry. after his death in 1555 his widow margarete continued the operation: sabon is first found in frankfurt working for the egenolffs—margarete & family. the literature is somewhat conflicting, but sabon is to be found in amsterdam a short time later working for the important amsterdam publisher-printer christoph plantin: one source states he was employed by plantin as punch-engraver 1565-7¹; another that he was summoned to amsterdam by plantin in 1563 to set up plantin’s foundry, but returned to frankfurt 1564². in either set of events, sabon returned to the egenolff establishment with matrices obtained in amsterdam & updated the egenolff foundry material to include types by garamond & granjon. in 1571 he married christian egenolff’s granddaughter judith & eventually ownership of the foundry passed to sabon. he kept close business relations with claude garamond & his successors in paris, & robert granjon in lyon, amassing an unsurpassed stock of french renaissance material. [cf. jan tschichold, Leben und Bedutung des Schriftschneiders Jakob Sabon, d. stempel ag & linotype gmbh, frankfurt am main, n.d. but c.1969.]