Jan Tschichold

 
1902, Germany

Studied: The son of a sign-writer, was trained in calligraphy
(This set him apart from other designers of the time which had been trained in the areas of Architecture or the fine arts and moved into Graphic design and Typography afterward)

Life: Tschichold and his wife were arrested for being "cultural Bolshevists" under Hitler's rule after Soviet posters were found in their flat. Somehow, three weeks later a policeman found them tickets to Switzerland and they were able to escape.

Important Works:

Sabon typeface 1967


Penguin Books redesign of paperbacks 1947-1949

Tschichold became a firm believer in Modernism after a visit to the Weimar Bauhaus exhibition in Germany 1923. He published a book entitled Die Neue Typography in which he advertised modernist principals. Later in his career, he discredited this book as being to extreme.


Jan Tschichold died on the 11th of August 1974 in Switzerland.