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the Bauhaus German Design School
Located in Weimar, Germany from 1919–1924, the Bauhaus was the German design school where ideas from all the advanced art and design movements were explored, combined, and applied to problems of functional design and machine production. Workshops were taught both by an artist who focused on form, and a craftsman who focused on production. At first, the workshops were organized like medieval guilds: master, journeyman, and apprentice. -
“Pneumatik” poster
The 1923 “Pneumatik” poster is an experimental typophoto. László Moholy-Nagy also believed that the photogram, because it allowed an artist to capture a patterned interplay of light and dark on a sheet of light-sensitive paper without a camera, represented the essence of photography. -
"The Next Call"
In September 1923, Hendrik N. Werkman began publication of "The Next Call", a small magazine of typographic experiments and texts, in which he explored type as concrete visual form as well as alphabetic communication. His process of building a design from ready-made components can be compared to the creative process of the Dadaists. -
the Bauhaus moves to Dessau, Germany
After tension grew between the Bauhaus and the city government, the director and masters of the school all signed a letter of resignation. In April 1925, the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, Germany. A new building complex was designed, and the curriculum was reorganized in the fall of 1926. -
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy’s passion for typography and photography inspired a Bauhaus interest in visual communications and led to important experiments in the unification of these two arts. He saw graphic design, particularly the poster, as evolving toward the “typophoto.” He called this objective integration of word and
image to communicate a message with immediacy “the new visual literature.” -
Herbert Bayer
From 1925–1932, the typography workshop at the Bauhaus
taught by Herbert Bayer, experimented with flush-left, ragged-right typesetting; established visual hierarchy after careful analysis of content; and explored open composition on an implied grid and a system of sizes for type, rules, and pictorial images. He designed a universal type that reduced the alphabet to clear, simple, and rationally constructed forms. -
Universal Alphabet Typeface
Herbert Bayer designed a sans serif lowercase-only typeface that embodied the Bauhaus aesthetic, which aimed to unite art with the principles of functional design. He achieved legibility by reducing the alphabet to its essential geometric lines and curves. -
Isotype
By Vienna sociologist Otto Nuerath. The isotype concept involves the use of elementary pictographs to convey information. Neurath felt that the social and economic changes following World War I
demanded clear communication to assist public understanding of important social issues relating to housing, health, and economics. A system of elementary pictographs to present complex data, particularly statistical data, was then developed. -
Futura Typeface
Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. -
Leichte Kabel Typeface
A geometric sans-serif typeface designed by German designer Rudolf Koch. -
Die Neue Typographie (The New Typography)
Jan Tschichold was disgusted with the “degenerate typefaces and
arrangements” and sought to find a new, asymmetrical typography to express the spirit, life, and visual sensibility of the day. His objective was functional design by the most straightforward means, and he declared the aim of every typographic work to be the delivery of a message in the shortest, most efficient manner. -
Eric Gill
Designed Golden Cockerel, which is a revitalized roman
incorporating both old style and transitional qualities. He also designed Perpetua, an antique roman face inspired by the inscription on Trajan’s column but subtly reconceived to accommodate the needs of typecasting and printing. His work for The Four Gospels demonstrates a synthesis of old and new. -
Piet Zwart
A Dutch designer who combined the Dada movement’s playful vitality and de Stijl’s functionalism and formal clarity. Designs space as a “field of tension” brought alive by rhythmic composition, vigorous contrasts of size and weight, and a dynamic interplay between typographic form and the background page. His personal logo is a visual/verbal pun based on his last name. -
Times New Roman Typeface
Stanley Morison introduced Times New Roman, which was a major design of the twentieth-century typeface. (Serif typeface) -
Herbert Matter
His posters from the 1930s for the Swiss National Tourist
Office use montage, dynamic scale changes, and an effective integration of typography and illustration. Photographic images become pictorial symbols that have been removed from their naturalistic environments and linked together in unexpected ways. -
Walter Herdeg's Graphis Magazine
During World War II, graphic designer Walter Herdeg launched a
bimonthly international graphic design magazine called "Graphis" in 1944. He published, edited, and designed the magazine for forty-two years and 246 issues. This magazine stimulated an unprecedented global dialogue among graphic designers and is still being published today. -
Willem Sandberg
While hiding and working for the Resistance during World War
II, he created his "Experimenta Typographica", a series of probing typographic experiments in form and space that was published in the mid-1950s. He was fascinated by serendipity, such as the unexpected relationship that occurred when the rough edges of torn paper were juxtaposed with crisp edges of type.