The new typographic style started in the 1920s and 1930s, the
so-called New Typography movement was a main factor and contributed graphic
design and informational art of the artistic avant-garde in Central Europe.
El Lisstzky, a main figure in the constructivist artist played a major role and
was considered a key figure in the development of the New Typography movement,
he was one of the first designers to abandon the classical rules of typography
and made use of asymmetrical layouts, geometric shapes, a limited
range of colours, and sans serif letter-forms. He's considered the
first person to apply modern art techniques to typography. Lisstzky's
principles will influence Maholy-Nagy and applied these graphic principles to
the Bauhaus.
The main principles and characteristics of the New typographic
style was a rejection to traditional arrangement of type in symmetrical
columns, t designers started to organize the page or poster as a blank field in
which blocks of type and illustration (frequently photomontage) could be
arranged in harmonious, strikingly asymmetrical compositions.
Contents in their designs would be arranged according to hierarchy.
Intentional use of white space was also evident and one of the
main factors of the style.
Typefaces were strictly Sans Serif to accompany the geometric
nature of the modernist philosophy. These new principles were important factors
for paper size standardisation.
The new typographic style main artist included Jan Tschichold, Max
Bayer, Ladislav Sutnar, Kurt Shwitters and Piet Zwart.
Jan Tschichold was a crucial figure of the new typographic
style and in 1928he published his book, 'Die Neue Typographie' (German for
"The New Typography). He aimed to make guidelines for a new era of
typography in a time were the emphasis was on beauty and aesthetics Tschichold
wanted to move away and change the traditional notions and introduced the
principle of clarity and functionality. These guidelines helped with attaining
clear, functional, and simplistic type that would also enhance the legibility
of printed literature. Tschichold new guideline provided functional typography
and its methods were quickly adopted be many printers and designers. This is
when the New Typography movement really began to take off.
Jan Tschichold was responsible in creating new fonts in the mid
early 20th century and the most famous typefaces he designed include
Typefaces Tschichold designed include: ‘Transit ‘(1931),
‘Saskia’(1931/1932), ‘Zeus’ (1931) and Sabon (1966/1967)
The New Typography movement provided a much needed overhaul to
typographic techniques in an age when new technology easily allowed typographers
to experiment and adopt new approaches to arrange type on a page. “Die
Neue Typographie” by Jan Tschichold was the essential guideline that quickly
caught on and helped birth a new era of typography.
References
The Thames and Hudson
Dictionary of Graphic
design and Designers
1992-98 Thames and Hudson Ltd, London UK
All
accessed 22/1/2014 1400
