The New Typography

THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY
After the jumble of styles of the eighties. which affected typography as
devastatingly as everything else. and after the reaction of the "Freien
Richtung" movement which followed it. the Jugendstil movement at the end
of the 19th century was an attempt to give expression to a new philosophy
of life. It tried to discard historicism by going back to the forms of nature
and creating a contemporary style out of function. construction. material.
and methods of manufacture.
In the field of books the most notable work in search of a new style was
that of Peter Behrens. Despite their basically correct theories. however. the
artists of the Jugendstil did not succeed in creating a truly meaningful
style. They placed too great an emphasis on form as a concept in its own
right. and failed to recognize its dependence on the factors which really
control design. such as demand. purpose. raw materials. and manufacturing
methods. Jugendstil did succeed in finding a truly new and original style of
decoration to replace historical styles; but a really new attitude towards
form. despite countless good starts. was not discovered. Nevertheless.
Jugendstil made a great contribution in decisively preparing the way for the
new. which after years of reaction would again be recognized.
It must now be observed that in some of the books designed by Peter
Behrens he used sanserif as a text face. The Jugendstil movement in
Holland. which leads in an unbroken line to Oud. Mondrian. and Doesburg
of today, also used sanserif right from the start as their only typeface- at
first. sometimes in a very distorted form. In both cases these designers
came to sanserif because they were looking for the simplest form of type­
face - the "prototype." It was preferred by the Constructivist members of
the Jugendstil. while Otto Eckmann. the leading painter in the movement.
made a strange but very interesting attempt to combine the forms of frak­
tur and Antiqua (roman). drawing the shapes of the letters with a brush.
Eckmann very greatly influenced book design at that period. but we cannot
regard him. as we can Behrens. as the true forerunner of the modern move­
ment in typography. As Jugendstil petered out. since it was unable to real­
ize its vague aims owing to a lack of appropriate tasks. there followed a
time in book design of revival of historical styles (initiated by Wieynck's
Trianon). although perhaps on a higher plane than before. Its greatest. but
final. triumphs were at the Bugra Exhibition of 1914 and the Leipzig Inter­
national Book Exhibition of 1927.
A solitary gleam of hope came at this time from the Vienna Workshop
(founded in the Jugendstil period). which never gave up a search for a con­
temporary style. I have in my possession a very interesting little booklet