In the first book on Tschichold to be based on extensive archive research, Burke turns fresh and revealing light on his subject. He sets Tschichold in the network of artists and designers who constituted New Typography in its moment of definition and exploration, and puts new emphasis on Tschichold as an activist collector, editor and writer. Tschichold’s work is shown in colour throughout, in freshly made photographs of examples drawn from public and private collections. This is not a biography, but rather a discussion of the work seen in the context of Tschichold’s life and the times in which he lived.
| availability | in print |
| published | 2007.08.02 |
| extent | 336 pp |
| dimensions | 276 × 210 mm |
| illustrations | 700 colour pictures |
| binding | hardback |
| ISBN | 0-907259-32-4 |
| ISBN13 | 978-0-907259-32-9 |
| £35.00 |
Burke has consulted Tschichold’s correspondance in the Getty Research Institute, and his drawings and layouts in the German National Library in his home city of Leipzig. The result is a thoroughly researched and superbly documented book, with a detailed account of the work, much of it unfamiliar, as well as of Tschichold’s relationships with designers such as Paul Renner, El Lissitzky and Laslo Moholy-Nagy. The lavish illustrations, in colour throughout, show Tschichold’s designs as never before. Not only Die neue Typographie, but the shorter pamphlets are reproduced, not as just one spread but several, and his first manifesto, “elementare typographie”, is given in translation as well. Perhaps most illuminating are the many layouts and drawings, including a number of type designs which were not put into production.
Burke’s account gives us a more human Tschichold than the uncompromising ideologue of legend, one who was trying to make a living, and producing more varied work than is usually reproduced.
Sebastian Carter, TLS Times Literary Supplement, February 1 2008
