whether engraved. cut. or etchec:J. can now be done better. faster. and usu
ally more cheaply. by photos and blocks. Sadly the possibilities of photog
raphy itself and photographic techniques are still shunned by many, includ
ing even printers. My belief that photography is just as much a part of
typography as type and rules has been strongly opposed. Photographs. like
letters. are a means of communication. The faster and simpler the means of
communication the better. The development of our type from pictures to
writing was intended to mcrease. as much as possible. understanding
between people. Today there is much that we can "say" more simply with
photographs than with words. And are not photographic blocks materially
related to type? Certainly progress will bypass those who do not accept the
photographic block in typography, or photography in general, and consider
them a "non-artistic form." (This problem is dealt with in the section on
"Photography and Typography." p. 87.) In advertising. at all events. there is
no question of an "artistic representation" of an object. Of these "artistic"
forms and oil-paintings that so of ten were completely "unreadable." we
have now had enough. The required object must be shown as clearly. as
perfectly, and as truthfully as possible, and nothing can do this so well as
photography. Because photography, as a black-and-white form. when com
bined with type provides totally new possibilities of design by means of the
�-
MAX BURCHARTZ
and JOHANNES CANIS:
Reverse side of an advertising leaflet,
in DIN A4. Black and green.