Jan Tschichold is...

Jan Tschichold is...

Jan Tschichold is one of the most outstanding and influential typographers of the 20th century. He was a master in his field, worked as a teacher, wrote a number of books, designed typefaces, and worked his entire life as designer and writer. He designed many typefaces Sabon, Transit, Saskia, and Zeus. He was Born on April 2, 1902 in Leipzig, Germany and then died August 11, 1974 in Locarno, Switzerland. Tschichold was the son of a provincial signwriter, and he was trained in calligraphy. This artisan background and calligraphic training set him apart from almost all other noted typographers of the time, since they had inevitably trained in architecture or the fine arts. Tschichold was a german typographer and author who played a seminal role in the development of 20th-century graphic design and typography. He wrote Die neue Typographie (1928; The New Typography; A Handbook for Modern Designers), which expounded the principles and functional uses of Modernist typography to printers, type compositors, and designers. Tschichold visited the Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar. Influenced by the new Bauhaus typography. He also favored non-centered design (e.g., on title pages), and codified many other Modernist design rules. The 'new typography' was strongly in favor of asymmetry and bold sans serif typefaces. He was condemned by the Nazis for creating unGerman typography and accused of 'Kulturbolschevismus', and was arrested and interned for a while. He took refuge in Switzerland in 1935. While in Switzerland he published 'Asymmetric Typography' where he uncompromisingly advocated the new typography.