JAN TSCHICOLD

1902-1974

About Tschicold

Born in 1902, Leipzig, Germany, Tschicold was a typographer, book designer, teacher and writer

Trained in Calligraphy and artisan backgrounds, made him stand out from any other typographer at the time, as they were all trained in architecture or fine art.

Chose to work with stock fonts and commercial paper stocks instead of custom fonts

When Hitler was put into power in Germany, designers had to register with the ministry of culture, and anyone who supported the communists were threatened and jailed by Hitler.

Tschicold denounced as "cultural Bolshevist” by the Nazis when they came into power, 10 days after the Nazis came into power, Tschichold and his wife were arrested

Soviet posters and artwork were found in his flat, all his books were seized, putting him under suspicion he was a supporter of the communists.

six weeks later he and his wife managed to escape Germany in 1933 to Switzerland, he escaped with help from a policeman who managed to gain tickets apart from two trips to the UK in 1937, and 1947–1949 when Ruari Mclean, helped on the design of Penguin Books, died in hospital in Locarno in 1974.

Tschicold died in 1974 Locarno, Switzerland.

DesignVisited the Bauhaus in 1923, Tschichold converted to modernist design and became a leading name in the industry.

His most noted work was “Die neue Typographie” a manifesto of modern design, he condemned all typefaces but sans-serif which are called “Grotesk” in Germany, he favoured non-cantered designs and bent modernist design rules.

“Die neue Typographie” remains a classic

In 1932 Tshicold transformed back to classic print design, he then condemned “Die neue Typographie” as too extreme, all going as far as condemning Modernist design in general.

1947–1949 Tschichold lived in England, where he saw the production of 500 redesigned copies of “Penguin Composition Rules” published by Penguin Books and enforced many of the typographic practices that are taken for granted today.

Living in Switzerland after the war, he wasn't at the centre of the post-war Swiss International Typographic Style. A graphic design style developed in Switzerland in the 1950s that emphasises cleanliness, readability and objectivity, with the use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces.

Between 1926 and 1929, he designed a “universal alphabet” the alphabet was presented in one typeface, which was sans-serif and without capital letters.

Typefaces Tschichold designed include:

• Transit • Saskia • Zeus • Sabon, named after Jacques Sabon.

Jan Tschichold popularised the The notion of canons, or book page construction, in the mid to late twentieth century, created by J. A. van de Graaf, Raúl M. Rosarivo, Hans Kayser, and others.

Van de Graaf Golden Canon

Work By Tschicold

Die Frau ohne Namen “The woman without a name

Jan Tschichold “The New Typography”

Jan Tschichold - Asymmetric Typography

The Penguin books, designed by Jan Tschichold