The New Typography

the fa ctors that can be mentioned in Tschichold's turn to a traditional

approach to typography. Another factor that has been mentioned is his

contact with the "new traditionalist" typographers in England (Stanley

Morison and Oliver Simon most notably), whom he would have met per­

sonally on a visit to London in 1937. when he addressed the Double Crown

Club in an after-dinner speech.110 The change may be dated (on

Tsc hichuld's own account) to around 19 38: from which time he worked

almost exclusively in the symmetrical mode. with typefaces deriving from

pre-industrial models (t hough in versions made for machine composition);

and from being a tireless promoter of modernism in ty pography, he became

one of its most acute and sometimes acid critics 111

AGAINST THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY
The first published statement of position came in 19 4 6, in a reply to Max
Bill, who had made a barely veiled attack on his change of position.112
Tschichold's argument was notable for its moral and political dimension,
especially for its contemplation of the seemingly inevitable loss of human
values in industrialized labour. A key passage (set in italics) read:

Its [the New Typography's) intolerant attitude certainly corresponds

in particular to the German inclination to the absolute; its military

will-to-order and its claim to sole power correspond to those fearful

components of German-ness which unleashed H1tler's rule and the

Second World War 113

This was uttered in the heat of a polemical exchange, and in the immediate

aftermath of the war.

Tschichold maintained this political-philosophical charge against the New

Typography fo r the rest of his life. though later he put it in less intense lan­

guage. He also came to emphasize a set of more purely ty pographic objec­

tions to modernism in this fi eld. Thus in an exchange with the modernist

"Swiss typographers" (as they are now termed) who came to prominence in

the late 19 50s. he made a number of powerful criticisms of the New

Typography (or. more exactly. the ty pography that it had by then led to in

Switzerland).114 Among these objections were: that it was essentially limited

to publicity work and to the subject matter of the modern world. and could

not deal with the complexities of book design: that in relying on sanserif, it

used an unbeautiful letterform that could not be read easily as continuous

text: that the DIN paper-sizes were inappropriate for many purposes.

books above all; that it tended to adopt a rigid formalism that fa iled to

articulate the meaning of the text: that it lacked grace.