Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Blue Pencil no. 8—Idea 321 (2007)

Between 2006 and 2008 there was an astonishing outpouring of Tschicholdiana, books and magazines devoted to various aspects of the life and work of Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), the influential 20th c. typographer and typographic theorist. This is the first Blue Pencil post devoted to looking at these works. It is focused on a special issue of Idea, a Japanese graphic design magazine, dedicated to Tschichold.

Idea: International Graphic Art and Typography 321 2007.3
“Works of Jan Tschichold 1902–74”
222 pp.

This special issue of Idea includes material from the other recent publications about Tschichold as well as new items from Japanese authors. Thus, it is a good single-source overview of the current state of Tschichold research and thinking. However, it is also a hodge-podge. It is unclear how much of the problems outlined below are the fault of the original authors of the collected articles or of the Japanese editors and designer.

“Prologue: JT Resuscitation” by Yoshihisa Shirai pp. 11–18 [in Japanese only]
p. 13 the scan of the Bauhaus Austellung announcement has visible jaggies; the reproduction of Herbert Bayer’s cover for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition is very murky. Throughout this issue of Idea many images are reproduced not in full color or black-and-white but in maroon—not the more familiar red—and gray. Sometimes, as in this instance where the image is familiar (red and blue letters on a black background) the effect is jarring. Images are also reproduced more than once (in different color combinations and sizes) throughout the issue. This mirrors the redundancy in the texts. The editors should have done a better job of coordinating the various articles and cross-referencing common images.]
“Life and Work of Jan Tschichold” by Kiyonori Muroga pp. 19–22 (fold-out)
Chronology
p. 19 1902 “…Named Johaness” [should be “Johannes”]
p. 19 1926 “Invited to German Master Printer’s School, Munich, to teach typography and calligraphy. Identify [sic] himself as Jan.”
p. 19 1923–1925 “Identify [sic] himself as Iwan.”

Works of Jan Tschichold: Studies and Early Works pp. 23–32
p. 23 “Handwriting by 16 years old [sic] Tschichold, presumably modelled on [Robert] Granjon’s cursive.” [This is lettering not handwriting. What is meant by “Granjon’s cursive”: a specific 16th-century typeface by Robert Granjon or a 20th c. typeface based on his work?]
p. 24 no. 1 “Design for a magazine cover | 1920.” [The magazine is Archiv für Buchgewerbe und Graphik which should be identified and its importance noted. Also, it is worth noting that the textura (see the swash t in “Heft” especially) is directly influenced by the work of Rudolf Koch, such as the calligraphic book Die Glasgemälde (1913) or the swash letters of the typeface Maximilian (1914).
p. 24 no. 2 “humanist minascule” [sic]
p. 26 no. 2 “Design for a poetry book by [Vladimir] Mayakovsky | 1923.” [The title should be given and it should be noted that Mayakovsky was a Russian poet, but that this title is in Polish. The client was Philobiblon, a publishing house in Warsaw.]
p. 26 no. 3 [image on p. 27] “Cover design | 1924.’ [This caption is inadequate. The title (“Das Buch des Jahres 1924”) should be provided and it should be noted that it is rendered by hand while the remainder of the design is in type (apparently Monotype Garamond.)]
p. 28 no. 1 “…The trade [sic] was drawn by Peter Behrens.” [The trademark for the Insel Verlag was reused from one that Behrens designed for Die Insel magazine in 1899.]
p. 28 no. 2 “Magazine cover, [sic] Signed ‘IT’. | 1924.” [The magazine is Das Inselschiff (Insel Ship—a play on the publishing house’s mark). This caption and the previous one emphasize Tschichold’s IT signature but nothing is said about its appearance in his 1922 design for the Leipziger Messe (p. 25). This earlier work is significant since the chronology says he did not identify himself as Ivan (IT instead of JT) until 1923.]
p. 30 no. 2 [The calligraphic Insel Verlag mark used here differs from the Behrens one on earlier items but there is no mention of who did it. Presumably it was by Tschichold, but this should be made explicit.]

“Designer and dogmatist” by Robin Kinross pp. 31–34
p. 34 “Hypen Press” [sic]

Works of Jan Tschichold: For New Typography pp. 35–50
p. 35 [Several items are described as “letterheading”. There is no attempt to explain who Kurt Herrmann and Nina Chmelowa were. Were these speculative designs?]
p. 36 “‘Books from Philobiblon in Warsaw can be had here’ [sic] Original in black and gold.” [The Polish spelling of Tschichold’s name in for Philobiblon (no. 1) is noted but on the previous page there was no note about his name being spelled Tzschichhold in one item.]
p. 36 no. 2 “Title page for a book by Mayakovsky.” [The title, in Polish, is not given nor its it translated.]
p. 42 no. 1 “pra-ctical” is mis-hyphenated
p. 42 no. 4 “Dr. Fritz Wedekind, Stuttgart” should be “Dr. Fritz Wedekind & Co., Stuttgart”
p. 44 no. 1 “Ruali McLean” should be “Ruari McLean”; “Bo-ston” is mishyphenated
p. 44 no. 2 is mislabeled no. 1 “The cover consists of the [sic] El Lissitsky’s famous self-portrait….”
p. 47 “Only two out of the eight projected volume [sic] were published.”; “forth title” should be “fourth title”

“Jan Tschichold and sanserif” by Christopher Burke pp. 51–66
p. 51 [The red crossbar of T in the large JT on the page obliterates one line of type in Burke’s essay.]
p. 53 [The captions for the three type samples are sparse: “Erbar” and “Kabel”. They should include the designers’ names (respectively Jakob Erbar and Rudolf Koch), the foundries (Ludwig & Mayer and Gebrüder Klingspor) and the dates of release. For Erbar the latter is contentious with various sources listing 1922 (The Encyclopedia of Typefaces by Jaspert, Berry and Johnston), 1924 (progdata.umflint.edu) and 1926 (Graphic Design in Germany 1890–1945 by Jeremy Aynsley; and Paul Renner: The Art of Typography by Christopher Burke) as dates. The caption ignores the notation in the image that says, “Erbar Sept. 1922”. The Kabel caption is confusingly placed between a detail of the typeface at a large size and a character set for it at a smaller size. ]
p. 55 [The image of Futura is an unreleased version which the caption ignores.]
p. 66 “Christopher Burke (born in 1967) is a typographer, typeface designer and type hi Torian [sic].”

Works of Jan Tschichold: Typographic Posters pp. 67–74
[There is no mention of Tschichold’s use of handlettering in many of his Phoebus-Palast posters. For instance: Die Frau Ohne Namen, Zweiter Teil p. 67; The General no. 3, Casanova no. 4, and Die Kameliendame no. 6, p. 68; Laster der Menschheit p. 69; Nacht der Liebe no. 1, p. 70; and, I suspect, König Harlekin no. 3, p. 71. Of these Nacht der Liebe is entirely handlettered, though it is not as obvious as Laster der Menschheit.]
p. 72 no. 2 “Poster for GOGH exhibition” is a poster for an exhibition of Vincent van Gogh’s work. [Fuller texts for the captions to nos. 1–4—all posters for exhibitions at the Graphisches Kabinett in Munich—should be provided. Furthermore, no. 4 should have some commentary on participants in the exhibition of avant-garde posters: Jean Arp, Willi Baumeister, Herbert Bayer, Max Burchartz, Cassandre (a surprising choice), Walter Cyliax, Walter Dexel, El Lissitsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Molzahn, Xanti Schawinsky, Oskar Schlemmer, Paul Schuitema, Ladislav Sutnar, Georg Trump, Tschichold himself, and Piet Zwart. Neither Rodchenko nor the Stenberg Brothers is listed. Only their last names are included on the poster.]
p. 72 no. 9 [but shown on p. 74] “poster for constructivist [sic] exhibition* | 1937.” [What is the asterisk for? There is no discussion of those taking part in this exhibition: Theo van Doesburg, Cesar Domela, Viking Eggeling, Naum Gabo, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian, Niklaus Pevsner, Sophie Taeuber, Georges Vantongerloo, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. Only their last names are included on the poster.]

“Jan Tschichold: Posters of the Avantgarde” by Martijn F. Le Coultre and Alston W. Purvis pp. 75–82
[This essay wastes much time revisiting material covered in other contributions to Idea 321 such as Tschichold’s early career, his 1946 fight with Max Bill, his design of Sabon, etc. instead of going into depth about its alleged topic, posters of the avant-garde.]
p. 75 “Rudolph von Larisch” should be “Rudolf von Larisch”
p. 76 [The reproduction of Joost Schmidt’s 1923 Bauhaus exhibition poster is murky.]
p. 76 “twentyfourpage” should have word spaces and hyphens
p. 76 “Frankfurt a/d Main” should be “Frankfurt am Main”
p. 76 “Lyons born Jacques Sabon” should be “Lyons-born Jacques Sabon”
p. 76 “Ga-ramond” is mis-hyphenated
p. 77 “Like Renner and Tschichold, [Georg] Trump had a traditional training before embracing modernist typography.” [This statement fails to differentiate the educational program of F.H. Ernst Schneidler (Trump’s teacher at the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart) from the teachings of Edward Johnston, Rudolf Koch and Rudolf von Larisch. The Stuttgart School has been unjustly overlooked in histories of graphic design and typography. Der Wassermann (1945), the four-volume compendium of work by Schneidler and his students in calligraphy, typography, book design and illustration shows the Stuttgart School straddling the line between traditionalism and modernism.]
p. 77 [The caption to the advertisement for Futura makes no mention of the persistence of the ball-and-stick r in the heading.]
p. 77 [The cover of Wendingen shown (vol. 4, no. 11 from 1923) was designed by El Lissitsky, a fact that goes unremarked. At the same time the text on p. 76 says that El Lissitsky did a cover for Wendingen but does not identify the issue.]
p. 77 “Designs [by JT] were often unrelated to the films’ subjects. (For example, a sketch for ‘das Meer’ was later used for ‘die Hose’.)” [This statement may be true but it is not supported by any of the accompanying images. The poster for Das Meer looks nothing like that for Die Hose, both of which are shown on p. 79.]
p. 78 “Transito, 1931 (desiged [sic] in 1929.” [The caption for City does not identify Georg Trump as its designer. He is mentioned on p. 77 in the text but that is insufficient since the typeface is shown alongside others by Tschichold which are also uncredited. Foundries are not identified either. Also, the caption for The Washburn College Bible (1979) is not credited to Bradbury Thompson (though he is noted on p. 77 in the text).]
p. 78 text “…their [der Ring members’] preferred typeface was Futura…” [This is stated elsewhere but it does not seem to be supported by the work shown here and elsewhere. Some new typographers used Futura and also did lettering based on it, but others continued to use grotesques as Tschichold did in his Phoebus-Palast posters. See for instance the Schubertfeier poster by Max Burchartz 1928 on p. 79.]
p. 78 “Valter Dexel” should be “Walter Dexel”
p. 78 text “…immigrated to The [sic] United States…”
p. 79 [The caption for the Kurt Schwitters advertising slip for Apossverlag in Hannover should indicate the client and the date of 1924.]
p. 79 “Paul Schuitema, poster for exhibition, 1926.” [Paul Schuitema’s poster for Tentoonstelling in het Opbouw is entirely handlettered. This is not noted nor is the text translated from the Dutch into English.]
p. 79 “Max Brucharz” should be “Max Burchartz”
p. 80 “Ludwig Hohlwein, ‘Und Du?’, 1932” [The design is not identified as a poster. The reproduction is very muddy and there is no mention of the original colors.]
p. 80 “L. Bernhard, Poster [sic] for Stiller, 1913.” [Lucian Bernhard’s full name should be used for consistency. The client should be Stiller shoes.]
p. 81 “Jan Tschichold, Asymmetric Typography, 1967.” [It should be noted that this is the cover of the English edition of Typographisches Gestaltung, 1935. Several other facts should be mentioned: the translation was by Ruari McLean, the cover was by Cooper & Beatty, Toronto typehouse (not Tschichold who detested the design—note the tiny i shoehorned in between the r and c to justify the title).]
p. 81 “…founder of the museums [sic] Architecture and Design section.”
Works of Jan Tschichold: Modern Revival of Traditional Typography pp. 83–98
p. 84 [In Robin Kinross’ essay he says, “The surprising juxtaposition of typefaces on the title page of that book [Typographische Gestaltung]—the script typeface for the author’s name is used nowhere else in the book—shows the leap beyond simple ‘designing by constraints’.” (p. 34). Yet it is shown here in the phrase “Sommersemester 1935” on p. 45 of Typographisches Gestaltung. The script reappears in the title of Bücher aus dem Schweizer Verlag (1941) p. 92, no. 1.]
p. 89 no. 1 [for image on p. 88] [There is no mention of the fact that the cover of Begegnungen Künstlernovellen published by Benno Schwabe (1933) is set in sans serif (a mix of Futura for the title and what appears to be Akzidenz Grotesk for the remainder of the copy). It is only one of three examples shown on pp. 86–97 to use sans serif.]
p. 89 “Die Gesellschatskrisis [sic] der Gegenwart
p. 90 “Shakespeares Dramatische Werke” [“Dramatische” should be “dramatische”]
p. 91 “Homers, Odyssee.” should be “Homers Odyssee
p. 93 “Bookjacket for Goethes [sic], Goethes Briefe aus der Schweiz, 1779. | Holbein, Basel | 1941.” [Johann Wolfgang should be added to the author’s name.]
p. 96 no. 1 “Cover design for the festschrift. | 1947.” [This is remarkably uninformative. The item is Natur und Geist: Fritz Medicus zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, a book celebrating the 70th birthday of Fritz Medicus (1876–1956), a professor of philosophy and pedagogy at ETH (Eidgenössische Technischen Hochschule in Zürich).
[Throughout this section publisher’s names are abbreviated to Holbein or Birkhäuser, etc. with Verlag or other elements left off. I think the full name should be provided.]

“Jan Tschichold at Penguin Books: A Resurgence of Classical Book Design” by Richard B. Doubleday pp. 99–114
p. 1oo “Tschichold had witnessed for the first time the beautiful work of Italian, Spanish, German, Swiss and Dutch writing masters such as Giovanni Battista Palatino (d. 1575), Lodovico Arrighi (d. c.1527), Giovanni Tagliente (d. 1527), Francisco Lucas, Vespasiano Amphiareo (1501–63), Juan de Yçiar (1515–90), Johann Neudörffer (1497–1563), Urban Wyss, Pierre Simon Fournier le jeune (1712–68) and Jan van de Velde (1568–1623).” [The sequence of names is odd as it is neither chronological nor by country. But the bigger problem is that Fournier le jeune was a punchcutter, not a writing master.]
p. 100 “Rudolp [sic] von Larisch” should be “Rudolf von Larisch”
p. 100 “family of fraktur’s [sic]”
p. 100 “Rudolph Koch” should be “Rudolf Koch”
p. 100, fig. 1 “The decorative repeated Curwen Press patterned paper was designed by the German designer Elizabeth Friedlander (1903–198 [sic])” [Elisabeth Friedländer (1903–1984) immigrated from Germany to England in 1939. She was English, not German, when she designed the Curwen Press patterned papers. Doubleday is using her anglicized name.]
p. 100, fig. 3 “Originally in Blue, Green, Red, Yellow color.” [This inappropriate capitalization occurs throughout this essay. It is also found in Doubleday’s book on Jan Tschichold and Penguin Books from which this essay is derived.]
p. 100, fig. 3 [image on p. 101] “Based on Tschichold’s examination of the writing manuals of Ludovico [but Lodovico in the text] Arrighi and Giovanantonio [but Giovanni in the text] Tagliente. [sic] The two Italian Renaissance writing masters of scripts and chancery cursive.” [The calligraphy is a schwabacher not a script or a chancery cursive.]
p. 101, fig. 4 “assymetric” should be “asymmetric”; “A [sic] underlying element in Tschichold’s typography during the Bauhaus period, that he never abandoned through the Penguin period was the use of Scripts and Calligraphy.” [more incorrect capitalization]
p. 101, fig. 4 [The script typeface used for the author’s name on the cover of Utopolis is
Bernhard Schoenschrift (1925) by Lucian Bernhard.]
p. 102, fig. 5 “This particular script is similar to the dynamic and rhythmical lettering of the
Dutchman Jan van den [sic] Velde (1568–1623) and the flowing and charming cursive scripts of the
Englishman George Bickham (d. 1769).” [The script typeface—the same one used in Typographische Gestaltung
has nothing to do with the work of van de Velde, though it is reminiscent of Bickham’s oeuvre. The typeface
is not one available digitally today.]
p. 101 “Tschichold was deeply influenced by Lissitsky, who resided in Germany throughout most of the Weimar Republic and Third Reich.” [El Lissitsky lived in Germany from the end of 1921 to 1925 and briefly in 1926. He visited in 1928 and 1930 to work on exhibitions in Cologne and Dresden respectively.]
p. 102 “‘Elementare Typographie’ (The Principles of Typography)” [This is not a very good translation of the title. Burke translates it as “Elemental Typography”.]
p. 103, fig. 6 “Shakelpeares [sic] dramatilche [sic] Werke”; “The title in broken script (Fraktur), the German manuscript hand writing style was invented by Leonhard Wagner.”[“is” is missing]; “Tschicholdwas” [missing wordspace]; “Wolffgang Frugger” should be “Wolfgang Fugger”; “This cover… has a classical appearance due to the broken script (Fraktur), complementary Roman serif lettering, centered placements and meticulously composed illuminating [sic] floral decorative border.” [There is no Roman lettering in the cover design and no Fraktur either. The type is Caslon and Cloister Black, a textura.]
p. 103, fig. 7 “Des Luigi Da Porto GeschichteVon Romeo und Julia”. [“Da” and “Von” should be lowercase and a wordspace is needed between “Geschichte” and “von”.]; “…derived from the French Rococo era as well as the modern geometric stylings of Giovanni Battista Palatino” [Palatino, the Renaissance writing master, died c.1575. What are the modern geometric stylings that Doubleday is referring to?]
p. 103 [In the text “Tschi-chold” is the hyphenation while in the caption fig. 7 it is “Tschic-hold”; “Bir-khäuser” is mis-hyphenated; Penguin Composition Rules is italicized sometimes and left in roman at other times.]
p. 106, fig. 9 “…Cover Drawn and Devised by Jan Tschichold…” and fig. 10 “King Penguin Maximum Area and Correct Imposition for any King Penguin Plate.” [More German-style capitalization of nouns. In the illustration, it is “Maximum area and correct imposition for any King Penguin plate”.]
p. 107, figs. 11A–C “…Title-Page Instructions by Tschichold…” [Doubleday identifies one of the typefaces in the comps for King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table as Plantin Light but Tschichold’s specs simply say Plantin. Plantin has the proper weight to match the other typeface which is Cloister (rather than the lighter Centaur). Doubleday says it is Monotype Cloister but he does not explain the wrong font R in fig. 11B.]
p. 107, fig. 11B “From hand sketch to typeset stage, Tschichold’ [sic] annotations reflect concerns for additional letterspacing and leading before the final stage.”
p. 107, fig. 11C “The final design incorporates Tschichold [sic] final design modifications.”
p. 108, fig. 12 “san serif” [sic]; fig. 13 and fig. 15 “…First Published March 1941…”[more inappropriate capitalization]; “This original cover was designed by Edward Young, Penguin Books [sic] first production editor….”
p. 110, fig. 18 “…Das Kleine Pilzbuch—In vielen Farben…” [“Kleine” should be “kleine”]; [“The title in broken script (Fraktur), the German manuscript hand writing style [redundant] invented by Leonhard Wagner.” [The typeface used for the title is not a fraktur but a textura, Wilhelm Klingsporschrift by Rudolf Koch; the subtitle and publisher imprint are in a fraktur. “Leo-nhard” is mishyphenated.]
p. 111, fig. 20 “spanish” [sic];
p. 111, fig. 21 “…tranlsated [sic] by Dorothy L. Sayers, Cover Design by Jan Tschichold…” [More incorrect capitalization.]; “The embematic [sic] typographic feature is the straightforward uppercase Monotype Bembo throughout.” [The type is not Bembo on the cover of The Divine Comedy by Dante—though maybe it is in the interior of the book which is not illustrated. It is Perpetua.]
p. 111, fig. 22 “The books [sic] detail included a Beige [sic] cloth gilted [sic] stamped lettering on a vellum spine with Vellum [sic] tips, also referred to as French corners, finished by hand to reinforce the spine and avoid damage while handling.” [This is a run-on sentence.]; “Tschichold set the book in Monotype Lutetia, a typeface designed by Jan van Krimpen and printed by Silk & Terry on a specially made blue-white wove paper made [sic] by Wiggins, Teape & Co.” [This is a run-on sentence.]
p. 112, fig. 23 “Revised and Enlarged, 1949.” [Incorrect capitalization.]
p. 113, fig. 25 “Middlesex: The Buildings of Eng / land by Nikolaus Pevsner.” [There is no hyphen at the end of the line.]; “The word Middlesex is set in Monotype Bell.” [The type is not Monotype Bell but Perpetua.]
p. 113 text “For the Chapter [sic] headings and body text, Tschichold would mix various weights…”; “One notable Masterpiece [sic] from the series of Penguin Classics…”; “The books [sic] detail included a Beige [sic] cloth gilted [sic] stamped lettering on a vellum spine with Vellum [sic] tips, also referred to as French corners, finished by hand to reinforce the spine and avoid damage while handling.” [Another run-on sentence]; [twice The Golden Ass is not italicized]; “Tschichold set the two-color card slipcase in all caps, Monotype Perpetua in three distinctive groupings of typography.” [The typeface is not Perpetua but Lutetia. A comma is needed after “Perpetua”.]; “… printed by Silk & Terry on a specially made blue-white wove paper made [sic] by Wiggins, Teape & Co.”

Works of Jan Tschichold: Reformation of Penguin Books pp. 115–122
p. 116, fig. 1 “Typeface [sic] for the publisher’s name was changed from Bodoni to Gill San [sic] and Letterspaces [sic] in capital letters were optically adjusted.”
p. 117, fig. 8 “Prospectus design for The pelican [sic] History of Art | 1947.”; fig. 9 “The letter P is set in Monotype Felix Titling which is based on an alphabet designed by Veronese calligrapher Felice Feliciano in 1463.” [Credit for the calligraphic title of Penguins Progress 5 is not provided. Presumably it was by Tschichold himself.]; fig. 10 [No credit is given to Claudia Freeman for the jacket illustration.]
p. 118, fig. 1 “…The Transformation of Lucius Otherwise Known As [sic] the Golden Ass…”
p. 118, fig. 2 “The wood engraving portrait was by Raynolds Stone…. The frame was drawn by Tshichold [sic] using scraper board.” [“Raynolds” should be “Reynolds”.]

“Thoughts on the reception of Jan Tschichold’s work and personality thirty years after his death” by Jost Hochuli pp. 123–126
p. 123 “Hypen Press” [sic]

Works of Jan Tschichold: Writing and Publishing pp. 127–142
p. 127, fig. 2 ”Stanley Morrison” should be “Stanley Morison”
p. 128 “…a good introduction for apperentices [sic].”
p. 131 “An illustrated [sic] History of Writing and Lettering
p. 133 “Writtenborn, Schultz, Inc., New York” [“Writtenborn” should be “Wittenborn”]
p. 135 “A collection of masterpieces of calligraphy from 16th to 19th century [sic] in the maginificent [sic] size (242x330mm).”
p. 137 “The facsimile edition of the calligraphy book (London, ca. 1695) by John Seddon (1644–1700), a 17th [sic] English calligrapher.”
p. 138 “The facsimile edition of the calligraphy book (Paris, ca. 1647) by Louis Barbedor, a 17th [sic] French calligrapher.”
p. 142 “By now you may have guessed that it was Tschichold himself who was hiding behind [the] psuedonym [sic]. By normal standards one may consider [this] outrageous….”; “NewYork” needs a wordspace.

“Jan Tschichold and Roche: obsessive perfection” by Alexander L. Bieri pp. 143–146
p. 143 “In the mid–1950s….” [the en-dash should be a hyphen]
Works of Jan Tschichold: Designs for F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. Ltd. pp. 147–151
p. 150 “Sketche [sic] of invoice format….”

Works of Jan Tschichold: Design of Sabon pp. 152–155
p. 152 “In 1960, Linotype, Monotype and Stempel, the three great European type foundries, commissioned Tschichold to produce a typeface….” [Linotype and Monotype were not type foundries but composing machine manufacturers. The caption should identify Linotype as German Linotype or Linotype GmbH to differentiate it from English Linotype or Mergenthaler Linotype. From 1900 on Stempel created matrices for Linotype GmbH.]

“On Sabon Next Project” by Jean-François Porchez pp. 156–162
p. 156 “its” should be “it’s”
p. 156 “When people like something very much, they became [sic] blind and stop to think [sic], losing their critical sense.”
p. 157 “Depending on the amount of interaction between the people involved in this process, everyone sometimes result in acquiring slightly different interpretations of the principles of a form of a typeface.”
p. 158 “…which demonstrated a commonalities [sic] with Tschichold’s version.”
[Porchez’s English has not been properly translated into English.]
p. 157 “The standard version we found at Linotype and Adobe today came from the Mergenthaler version, which came from the Linotype/Monotype matrices versions produced in 6 to 12 pts.” [This is very unclear. Were the Monotype and [German] Linotype matrix versions the same or slightly different due to the differing requirements of their machinery? What does Mergenthaler have to do with these designs? He later says, “Sadly, when Linotype [German Linotype?] and Monotype adapted the design [the one done for their composing machines] to their photocomposition systems, they did not follow the Stempel version.”]
“Tschichold’s eastward gaze” by Christopher Burke pp. 163–166
p. 164 “spi-ritual” is mis-hyphenated
p. 165, fig. 2 “Japanese coat armors.” [“coats of arms”?]

Works of Jan Tschichold: Interests in the East pp. 167–174
p. 167 “…masterpieces of Chinese colour Printing [sic] of the Ming dynasty.”
p. 173, fig. 4 “‘A typographically unpleasing unauthorized English edition, against which one shoud [sic] be cautioned [sic], was issued in 1965 by the Wynkyn de Worde Society of London.”

“Considering the Dispute between Jan Tschichold and Max Bill” by Taro Yamomoto in Japanese pp. 174–182 and in English pp. 183–188
p. 184 “exacly” [sic]
p. 184 “…the asymmetrical practice of aligning only the left side of the text and leaving the right side rough, a practice known as ‘rugged’ [sic] or ‘flush left,’…”
p. 185 “…a type size is only proportional to the size of the EM [sic] body, not to the visual size and the size of the axctual printed characters.”
p. 186 “abst- / ract” is mis-hyphenated
p. 186 “…an arbitrary attempt at explanation aüa [a la?] Ruskin.”
p. 187 “relyoncrafts” [missing wordspace]
p. 187 “Deut- /sche Werkbund” is mis-hyphenated
p. 187 “Typisierung, to be understood ad [sic] the result of a beneficial concentration.” [Typisierung should be italicized.]
“Getting it right—Jan Tschichold’s search for mass quality” by John D. Berry pp. 189–190
p. 190 “ordder” [sic]
p. 190 “Jan Tschichold: typographer” should be italicized in its first appearance
p. 190 “weere” [sic]
Works of Jan Tschichold: Miscellaneous pp. 191–195
p. 193, fig. 3 “Schönste liebe mich” should be italicized as a book title.

Reprint by Baumann & Baumann pp. 196–198
p. 197 “editon” [sic]

Willkürfreie Maßverhältnisse der Buchseite und des Satzspiegels (1962) translated into Japanese pp. 199–213
Bibliography pp. 214–218
p. 215 re: English edition of The New Typography: “Los Angels” [sic]
p. 215 re: Typographische Entwurfstechnik: “Wede kind” should be “Wedekind”
p. 215 re: Vad var och bör reta om bogtryck: “Srockholm” [sic]
p. 215 re: Designing Books: “Writtenborn, Schultz, Inc.” “Writtenborn” should be “Wittenborn”
p. 215 re: Louis Barbedor: “The identity of the editor is not stated in the text and is [sic] appears only on the book jacket.”
p. 216 re: Penguin Composition Rules “(Not Available [sic] through the book trade.)”
p. 217 “Gute Typograhie [sic] in Gefahr
p. 217 re: “Jan Tschichold—Master Typographer” exhibition in Cincinnati 1957 “Noel Martine” should be “Noel Martin”
p. 217 “Typographie der Mitte” article by Georg Kurt Schauer has the publishing information incorrectly set out rather than indented
p. 217 re: Paul Standard in Publishers’ Weekly “Jan Tschichold: Proponent of Asymmetryand [sic] and Tradition”
p. 218 “Saon [sic] Antiqua, eine neue Schrift nach Entwüfen [sic?] von Jan Tschichold” by Jost Hochuli
p. 218 “Bertold Hack” in one place and “Berthold Hack” in another

“Book Review” p. 219
[This is a listing, with short comments in Japanese, of books about Tschichold since his death in 1974.]

[The use of the quaint st ligature throughout this special issue of Idea would have appalled Tschichold.]

John Berry quotes Ruari McLean as saying that Tschichold’s fundamental contribution to typography was in “getting all the details right—with elegance.” This is precisely what is wrong with this special issue of Idea.

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