Jan Tschichold and the New Typography with Paul Stirton

This is a recording of a lecture given online via Zoom for the St Bride Library on 29 April 2021.

During the 1920s Jan Tschichold began corresponding with many emerging graphic designers throughout Europe and the Soviet Union, offering to exchange works or requesting examples of adverts, posters and letterheads. What began as a means of educating himself in the principles of modern design, developed into a comprehensive survey collection of progressive graphics in Europe. Tschichold even referred to it as his “museum”. This collection is now dispersed, but we can recapture the spirit of the heroic period of modernism through Tschichold’s eyes by examining the designs he acquired. This talk will illuminate works by some leading figures such as ElLissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, Moholy-Nagy and Piet Zwart, as well as lesser known designers like Johannes Molzahn, Walter Dexel and Max Burchartz.

Paul Stirton was curator of the exhibition Jan Tschichold and the New Typography held in New York in 2019 and author of the book of the same title (Yale, 2019). His previous books include“Is Mr. Ruskin Living too Long?”: Selected Writings of E.W. Godwin(Oxford 2005). He is Professor of Modern European Design at the Bard Graduate Center in New York and editor of West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, published by University of Chicago Press.

https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k...

This talk is part of our ‘Celebrating 125 Years of St Bride Library’ lecture series,
which has kindly been sponsored by:


• Adobe (www.adobe.com/)
• Commercial Type (commercialtype.com/)
• Eye Magazine (www.eyemagazine.com/)
• Eric de Bellaigue
• Google (www.google.com)
• Jerry Wright
• Just Another Foundry (justanotherfoundry.com/)
• Klim Type Foundry (klim.co.nz/)
• Lexon GB, Creative & Innovative Print (lexongroup.com/)
• Mayor of London (payitforward.london.gov.uk/fund)
• Medioto – Graphics & Animation (medioto.com/)
• Peter Longland
• R-Typography (www.r-typography.com/)
• Trevor Fenwick
• Type By (www.typeby.com/)
• Usborne Publishing (usborne.com)

and The Wynkyn de Worde Charitable Trust who have sponsored students and recent graduates to attend this lecture.

To find out more about the St Bride Library, please visit:
www.sbf.org.uk