is technical. Here we see the mixing-in
of that "art" against which we are fight
ing-an artificiality which neglects truth
and merely makes a "pretty shape" which
fails to express the purpose of the de
sign. Imagination must be used on the
basis of actual purpose. if truth in design
is to be achieved. (In painting it is differ
ent: no restrictions are laid down,
because the work does not have a fixed
purpose.)
One also often finds the use of historical
typefaces (Schwabacher, gothic, fraktur)
in the manner of contemporary typogra
phy. But it is wrong to use these hrstori
cal forms in this way -they are foreign
to our time and should be used only in a
manner suitable to their own age. Can
you imagine an airline pilot with a beard?
The juxtaposition of positive and nega
tive (reversed black to white) type, first
introduced by commercial artists, can
also be found in purely typographic
work. There is no objection to this if it is
based on logic (an important part of a
word can be emphasized in this way)
but that is not often the case. A word is
often broken for purely formal reasons.
This is not a sign of the New Typog
raphy. Independent negative lines can of
course be beautiful and are usually very
effective.
Equally, setting in which blocks of text
are arranged alternately on the left and
right of an imaginary vertical line usually
has a forced and unsatisfactory effect.
The resulting uneven spacing and the
violence of the block-shapes are merely
unpleasing repetitions of old mistakes.
"' '5