Jan Tschichold : type designs and typography

Lecture and exhibition at St Bride Library in summer 2007

Event Venue :

Exhibition Room
St Bride Printing Library
Bride Lane (off Fleet Street)
London EC4Y 8EQ

Lecture Date and Time :

Tuesday 19 June 2007
Exhibition preview : 5:30pm in the Exhibition Room
Lecture : 7pm in the Bridewell Hall

Entry to the lecture, £5 or £3 concessions, on the door

Exhibition Dates and Times :

Wednesday 20 June to Thursday 23 August 2007
Tuesday–Thursday 12:30–5:00 pm
Wednesday 12:30–9:00 pm
Entry to the exhibition is free.

The Lecture :
:: Christopher Burke : Jan Tschichold : the missing typefaces

Jan Tschichold is known for one great typeface, Sabon. Designing typefaces was never his principal activity but he designed several during the 1920s and 1930s, which have fallen into obscurity. Tschichold himself liked to forget some of them in later life and others, designed for the pioneering Uhertype phototypesetting system, never made it into circulation. This lecture draws on new archive research to bring these early typeface designs by Tschichold back into focus.

The Exhibition :
:: Active literature : Jan Tschichold and New Typography

As well as being a key designer of the modernist typography of Central Europe of the 1920s and 1930s, Jan Tschichold was its main theoretician and historian. This exhibition shows the books and other publications in which he explained the New Typography. Also here are some of the books that he designed in this period for literary and political publishers. Tschichold always preferred 'active literature' to passive 'fine printing', and this exhibition is a rare chance to see the results of his engagement.

The exhibition is co-curated by Christopher Burke and Robin Kinross.

The Curators :

Christopher Burke is a typographer, typeface designer and type historian. He worked at Monotype Typography in the UK, before studying for a PhD in Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading, England, where he also taught between 1996 and 2001. He has designed four typefaces: Celeste & Celeste Sans, Pragma and Parable. His book, Paul Renner: the art of typography, was published in 1998 by Hyphen Press (London), which will also publish his new book, Active literature: Jan Tschichold and New Typography, in 2007.

Robin Kinross is a typographer and editor. He runs Hyphen Press, which has published books by, among others, Christopher Burke, Gerrit Noordzij, Karel Martens, Peter Burnhill, Fred Smeijers, and Harry Carter. His own writing includes the book Modern typography (1992, 2004), and a long introduction to the English translation of Jan Tschichold's Die neue Typographie (1995).

More Info :

St Bride Library
Bride Lane (off Fleet Street)
London EC4Y 8EQ

We would recommend that you do call beforehand to check accessibility to the exhibitions, especially if making a long trip.
T : 020 7353 4660
W : http://www.stbride.org