Virtual Typography

1.5

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Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

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From visual poetry to modern typography: 1.5 Bauhaus and De Stijl

1.4 Constructivism 1.6 Concrete poetry

Bauhaus and De Stijl

De Stijl magazine – Theo van Doesburg

Together with Piet Mondrian, van Doesburg co-founded the

movement De Stijl around a magazine publication with the

same name. Two spreads of one issue of De Stijl magazine

can be seen here next to its front and back cover. Today

one might judge the composition as crude. Yet one can

clearly see the inspiration from visual poetry that led to an

exploration of type as a visual language. The cover pages

refl ect the rigorous domination of rectangular arrangements,

typical of De Stijl. In the 1920s, van Doesburg distanced

himself from Mondrian’s point of view by acknowledging

diagonals as acceptable elements.

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

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