ALL ABOUT CREATIVITY

Famous for his book on asymmetric typography (1935 – notice the i tucked up into the r) and a huge influence on mid-20th century design, especially at Penguin.

Less well known for a publication issued in 1946 (in English) titled ‘An Illustrated History of Writing and Lettering’.

I’d forgotten I had this book, because of its slimness it had got ‘lost’ among larger companions and it has a battered cover, which of course adds to its charm.

In the introductory note Tschichold writes: ‘The immense flood of printed matter which characterises the present day has not only diminished our reverence for language. It is also beginning to destroy our living sense for the visible representation of language, for writing and lettering. There are few people who are still sensitive to the positive and negative values in lettering, probably because it is under the eyes whichever way we turn, and everybody has to make use of it, even if it be only on the typewriter’.

He has a point, though I think he would have delighted in the freedoms allowed today in the graphic arts and would have enjoyed using a Mac and excelled with InDesign.