The New Typography

(Elle) #1

feeling that here is a circumstance which will make our inner life poorer,
more one-sided and less desirable. But when we look closer into this we
see that man can only develop his personality in the present state of civi­
lization and culture if he stops wearing himself out in an unprofitable strug­
gle against useless detail but makes himself free to find the time and
means for developing his true personality.
"We must be clear that countless things today in their ill-founded and
largeJy inappropriate complexity are not at all the result of an earnest striv­
ing to form a personality, but simply the product of a far-reaching and arbi­
trary thoughtlessness in manufacturers and consumers. We must further
accept that the overwhelming number of objects of daily need are easier to
cope with under the law of pure expediency than under the demands of
personal taste.
"All the objections that make bogeys out of sensible and tasteful discipline
fall apart when we examine them. It is no less than a deception of public
opinion when it is said that unplanned production has more personal value
than the production of goods on an honest functional basis and by the col­
laboration of manufacturers and consumers."

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