The work and life of this German type and book-designer are, for the first time, presented at length and with full historical documentation. Renner lived through the first half of the twentieth century, and this book is, in effect, a history of typography in Germany in those years. It also speaks to present concerns in design, and especially to the search for a rationality deeper than one of easy rules of style.
| availability | in print |
| published | 1998.01.01 |
| extent | 224 pp |
| dimensions | 240 × 170 mm |
| illustrations | 110 b&w + 20 colour pictures |
| binding | sewn & jacketed paperback |
| ISBN | 0-907259-12-X |
| ISBN13 | 978-0-907259-12-1 |
| £15.00 |
Typography would be a healthier profession if all its major figures were honoured by a study as meticulous and thoughtful as Burke’s book on Paul Renner.
Robert Bringhurst, Printing Historical Society Bulletin, no. 47, 1999
In Paul Renner Christopher Burke has offered us a detailed illustration of Modernism and modernity filtered through the work of an exemplary practitioner, educator and writer whose response to the challenges his era posed present a richer and more complex rendering of what it meant to be a Modern designer throughout the first half of this century.
Eric Kindel, Eye, no. 31, 1999
At its heart the book becomes an argument about the meaning of the modern, modernity and modernism. It offers an ambitious revision of the many histories that have focused almost exclusively on Bauhaus modernism for being most representatitve of this stage of German typographic design. Burke prises open the easily made elision between design philosophy, political belief and artistic form.
Jeremy Aynsley, Journal of Design History, 2000
