The Typographic Type

Issue 6, number 2 December 28, 2018

TT

The ypographic

A weekly newsletter for the contemporary type enthusiast

El Lissitzky by: Erik Spiekermann

Typography exists to honor content by: Robert Bringhurst

ype

In a world rife with unsolicited messages,

Lazar Markovitch Lissitzky was born at Polshinok

Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy - like

typography must often draw attention to itself

in the province of Smolensk in November 1890. In

anything that lends its grace to language -

before it will be read. Yet in order to be read,

1909, at the age of 19, he left Russia to study at the

typography is an art that can be deliberately

it must relinquish the attention it has drawn.

Darmstadt school of engineering and architecture.

misused. It is a craft by which the meanings of a

Typography with anything to say therefore

He made his first visit to Paris in the summer of

text (or its absence of meaning) can be clarified

aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its

1911. In the spring of 1917, in Russia, e produced

and honored, or knowingly disguised.

other traditional goal is durability: not immunity

the first of a series of Jewish picture books.

to change, but a clear superiority to fashion.

Following the Revolution, Marc Chagall

Typography at its best is visual form of language

had become principal of the Vitebsk art school,

linking timeless and time.

and in 1919 he appointed Lissitzky professor of

One of the principles of durable

architecture. There, under the influence of the

typography is always legibility; another is

Suprematist painter, Kasimir Malevich, who

something more than legibility: some earned

was one of his colleagues in the school, Lissitzky began to work on the experimental designs he

Published in Emigre 37, Joint Venture(1996). The issue is about collaboration, writing, intellectual property, entrepreneurialism, poetry, authorship, self-publishing, reading.

or unearned interest that gives its living energy

Stephen Farrell in Conversation

Continue on page 2

Terese Harrah: Describe your design process.

good puzzle. Data visualization combines all

How do you approach a new project?

three—we tease a raw tangle into a beautiful,

Stephen Farrell: I tend to have input and output cycles; I won’t make things for months,

consolidated pattern language. It is the graphic designer’s unique power.

even years, then all of the sudden, I begin making Design by El Lissitzky for a two-page spread from Dlya golosa (1923; For the Voice) by Vladimir Mayakovsky.

again. Incubation is very important in my work. e siren surface is as important to me as a sound

called ‘Prouns’. These, his first nonobjective

theme—an audience should feel pleasure from

works, were synthesis of Suprematist and

my work on all levels, always. I’m a rampant

Constructivist elements and Lissitzky described

connectivist, so my process tends to bounce

them as ‘the interchange station between painting

around and string things together, turn things

and architecture’. He soon began to incorporate

inside out in search of the novelty within an idea

typographical elements in his paintings and at the

and its relationship to other ideas or in other

same time to design posters and book covers. His

guises. And I get bored easily--thus typefaces,

arresting civil war poster ‘Beat the whites with

visual essays, illuminated novels, animated lms,

the Red Wedge’ is from this period, and this was

and currently paintings and music.

followed by the Suprematist story ‘Two Squares’

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Typography Exists to Honor Content

1

Stephen Farrell in Conversation

1

El Lissitzky

2

Everything written symbols can say has already passed by

3

Calendar of Events

Terese Harrah: What draws you to info-

designed in Vitebsk in 1920 and published in

graphics? SF: I’m very much drawn to patterns,

Berlin two years later.

I tend to think in structural terms, and I love a

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The Typographic type | December 28’ 2018 | Volume 2 | Number 6

Everything written

symbols can say has already passed by

by: Robert Bringhurst

During the nineteenth century the printing

The roots of modern typography are entwined

industry had failed properly to recognize the

with those of twentieth-century painting, poetry,

fundamental changes which were taking place in

and architecture. Photography, technical changes

society and consequently in the nature of what

in printing, new reproduction techniques, social

was printed. The rapid growth of industrialization

changes, and new attitudes have also helped

and of mass-production had created demands for

to erase the frontiers between the graphic arts,

new kinds of printing, first to control efficiently

poetry, and typography and have encouraged typography to become more visual, less linguistic, and less purely linear.

The new vocabulary of typography and graphic design was forged during a period of less than twenty years. The ‘heroic’ period of modern typography may be said to have begun with

“The typographer is to the text as the theatrical director is to the script, or the musician to the score.”

Marinetti’s Figaro manifesto in 1909 and to have

the processes of production and distribution and

reached its peak during the early twenties. By

later, as production and competition increased,

the end of that decade it had entered a new and

to create and to stimulate demand through

different phase, one of consolidation rather than of

advertising. During the nineteenth century, as

exploration and innovation.

the superlatives increased, printing types had

But of course modern typography was not

grown bigger, fatter, and more exuberant, but the

the abrupt invention of one man or even of one

printer still clung to a layout based on that of the

group. It emerged in response to new demand and

book. The first real departure from the centered

new opportunities thrown up by the nineteenth

layout of the book printer was introduced by

century. The violence with which modern

the exponents of ‘Artistic Printing’ during the

typography burst upon the early twentieth-

1870’s , but the significance and potentialities of

Le Figaro on 20 February 1909. This defined, in

century scene reflected the violence with which

this development were obscured by the elaborate

strident tones, a new concept of art and design.

new concepts in art and design in every field

ornament and decoration - often quite unrelated

Twelve months later, in Milan, the Manifesto of

were sweeping away exhausted conventions

to the subject matter of the text - in which they

Futurist Painting was signed by five painters,

and challenging those attitudes which had no

shrouded their printed announcements. The

including Balla and Boccioni. Boccioni, who

relevance to a highly industrialized society.

Artistic Printing movement contained the seed

was also a sculptor, became one of the principal

of modern typography, but the seed fell upon

theorists of Futurism. His manifesto on Futurist

infertile ground. By the end of the century most

sculpture published in 1912 anticipated the mobile

printers were imprisoned in a web of sterile

constructions later projected by Gabo, in 1922, and

convention or involved in an orgy of technical

those made by Calder, in 1930.

gimmickry, and the design of most of what they

art’s sake and they equally rejected any notion

reaction to this situation that the Futurists adopted

of merely playing with form or of indulging

their aggressive new technique for putting their

in typographic innovation for its own sake. In

notions into print.

typography, they demanded that the form should

Braque and Picasso in 1908 were but tentative

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The Futurists were opposed to art for

produced was either boring or irrelevant. It was a

The first Cubist composition painted by

“Big Nude”: Cubist composition painted by Braque 1908

“Big Nude”: Cubist composition painted by Braque 1908

intensify the content.

Suprematism provided the basis for

steps towards a new horizon. Of greater

much geometrical abstract painting in Europe,

immediate significance to the development of

and through the work of Lissitzky, Rodchenko,

modern typography was Marinetti’s Manifesto

and Moholy-Nagy during the early ‘twenties

of Futurism, published in the French Newspaper

Malevich’s ideas and those of the constructivist

The Typographic type | December 28’ 2018 | Volume 2 | Number 6

Vladimir Tatlin had immense influence on the

propagandist, the influence of de Stijl spread

Lessitzky was then 31. During the previous two

development of modern typography and

rapidly throughout Europe.

years, in Vitebsk, he had produced his first non-

graphic design.

Futurism, Dadaism, de Stijl, Suprematism

objective paintings, which he called ‘Prouns’,

and Constructivism were movements which

and some designs for posters and book covers

of Dadaism, de Stijl, one of the most influential

had originated in different countries and

incorporating drawn lettering, but in Berlin the

groups of artists in this century, was founded

whose objectives were different and sometimes

more sophisticated printing facilities that were

by Theo van Doesburg at Leiden, in Holland. It

conflicting, yet each in one way or another

available encouraged him to devote much of his

included among its early members the painters

contributed significantly to the shaping of modern

time to typography.

Mondrian, Huszar, and van der Leck, the sculptor

typography and to the merging of

Vantongerloo, the writer Kok, and the architects

word and image.

In 1917, a few months after the launching

Oud and Wils. Mondrian and van Doesburg

It was in Social Democratic Germany

were the group’s principal theorists, and they

about 1921 that the main streams of the modern

proclaimed that harmony in painting, architecture,

movement converged. From East and from West

and design could be achieved only by adopting a

all the new, raw ideas about art and design poured

style that was geometrically pure and impersonal.

in. In the aftermath of the first world war and

The basis of de Stijl work was the rectangle and

of the Russian revolution, Germany became the

the use of black, white, and grey, and the primary

intellectual stock-pot of Europe.

colors red, blue, and yellow. The work and

Among the many young Russian intellectuals

ideas of the members were widely disseminated

who arrived in Berlin at the time was Lissitzky,

through the group‚Äôs journal, “de Stijl”, which

who had studied engineering at Darmstadt before

first appeared in August 1917 and continued to be

the war. Altman, Archipenko, Ehrenburg, Gabo,

published until 1932. During the early ‘twenties,

Mayakovsky, Pasternak, and Antoine Pevsner

under the direction of van Doesburg, a man of

were also there. The Hungarian Moholy-Nagy

exceptional versatility and an active and voluble

had recently arrived from Vienna, and the leader of de Stijl, van Doesburg, was a frequent visitor.

“Typography exists to honor content”

Robert Bringhurst OC is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic.

artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high heeled shoes [or] bolstered hips shall incur the penalty of the law in force against

Continued from page 1

witchcraft...and...the marriage, upon conviction, to the page. It takes various forms and goes by

shall null and void.

various names, including serenity, liveliness,

The function of typography, as I

laughter, grace and joy.These principles apply,

understand it, is neither to further the power

in different ways, to the typography of business

of witches nor to bolster the defenses of those,

cards, instruction sheets and postage stamps, as

like this unfortunate parliamentarian, who live

well as to editions of religious scriptures, literary

in terror of being tempted and deceived. The

classics and other books that aspire to join their

satisfactions of the craft come from elucidating,

ranks. Within limits, the same principles apply

and perhaps even ennobling, the text, not from

even to stock market reports, airline schedules,

deluding the unwary reader by applying scents,

milk cartons, classified ads. But laughter grace

paints or iron stays to empty prose, but humble

and joy, like legibility itself, all feed on meaning,

texts, such as classified ads or the telephone

which the writer, the words and the subject, not the typographer, must generally provide.

Immediate significance to the development of modern typography was Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism, published in the French Newspaper Le Figaro on 20 February 1909

In 1770, a bill was introduced in the English Parliament with the following provisions: ...all women of whatever age, rank, profession, or degree, whether virgins, maids,

directory, may profit as much as anything else from a good typographical bath and a change of clothes. And may a book, like many a warrior or

or widows, that shall...impose upon, seduce,

dancer or priest of either sex, may look well with

and betray into matrimony, any of His Majesty’s

some paint on its face, or indeed with a bone in

subjects, by the scents, paints, cosmetic washes,

its nose.

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The Typographic type | December 28’ 2018 | Volume 2 | Number 6

O CTOBER 3RD, 10-2p.m.

O CTOBER 17TH, 12-1p.m.

O CTOBER 5TH, 3-5p.m.

INDESIGN FOR DUMMIES

CONTENT MARKETING FUTURE OF WEB DESIGN SEMINAR WORLD 2017

BU College of Fine Arts Auditorium

Chicago School fo Design

Beginniners will receive a free 1-year

Beginniners will receive a free 1-year

Beginniners will receive a free 1-year

membership with Adobe InDesign when they

membership with Adobe InDesign when they

membership with Adobe InDesign when they

attend this workshop which teaches the basic

attend this workshop which teaches the basic

attend this workshop which teaches the basic

elements of Indesign.

elements of Indesign.

elements of Indesign.

Contact Hanna Valentino: HannaVal@bu.edu for more information.

Contact Hanna Valentino: HannaVal@bu.edu for more information.

Contact Hanna Valentino: HannaVal@bu.edu for more information.

O CTOBER 21ST, 5-7p.m.

TYPOGRAPHY Q & A

New England School of Art and Design A surprise guest will be speaking at the N.E. Design school about typography and the importance of studying typography as a modern day graphic designer.

Contact Sarah Kilan: SarKilan@NEA.edu for more information.

O CTOBER 23RD, 10-12p.m.

NOVEMBER 3RD, 2-3:30p.m.

STEPHEN FARRELL MEET AND GREET

BRINGHURST IN CONVERSATION

BU Barnes and Nobles, Floor 5

Harvard University, Paine Hall

Stephen Farrell will be holding a meet and greet

Robert Bringhurst will be holding a special ‘in

with fans. He will answer questions about his

conversation’ seminar to discuss his latest

latest work and take photos as well.

works, his thoughts on typography today.

Contact Jenna Macus: JenMar@gmail.com for more information.

Contact Jackson Miller: JMiller@harvard.edu for more information.

NOVEMBER 9TH, 10-5p.m.

NOVEMBER 27TH, 10-12p.m.

NEO-CUBISM ART SHOW

ART AND WORDS: REJECT OR ACCEPT?

School of Art Institute of Chicago

New England School of Art and Design

The latest neo-cubism art show presents art

GOOGLE HQ in Silicon Valley

This is an open discussion led by an Jason

students latest portfolio where a panel of

Kulkarni about how art and words are being

judges will vote in specific categories.

combined and the rejection of old ways.

Contact Dean Carmen : DeanCMl@ChicagoArtedu for more information.

Contact Jason Kulkarni: JasonKul@NEA.edu for more information.

BIGGEST ART & DESIGN EVENTS

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Natalie Carroll 726 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts, 02215

The Typographic type | December 28’ 2018 | Volume 2 | Number 6

VENUE BO HA LT

N|C

OMMONWE 0C A 64

Typography Moves Towards Boldness

, 02215 - NA ON T ST

CARROLL IE AL

273 Bean Street, Boston, MA, 02215 The Typographic Type