Tp A Collective about ‘Ideal’ Type
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Contents
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4 10 16 24
Grid and Philosophy by Josef Müller-brockman, 1981
Designing Programmes by Karl Gerstner, 1964
Towards a Universal Type by Herbert Bayer, 1935
The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible by Beatrice Warde, 1932
Grid and Design Philosophy
Josef Müller-brockman | 1981 4
Grid and Design Philosophy
Josef Müller-Brockman divided and ordered graphic design into the grid of Swiss typography. He took design elements that were subjective, irrational, and chaotic and brought them under tight, measured control. He dealt deep into form and content, spending his life in Zurich bearing down his work to the essentials necessary for what he considered an objective— even timeless—method of communication. They grid was key to his pursuit. As Müller-Brockman’s notes in the essay at right, “working within the grid system means submitting to laws of universal validity.” He popularized the grid while spreading the principles of Swiss typography internationally through graphic design, lectures, and publications. In 1958 he founded New Graphic, and influential trilingual magazine promoting Swiss typography. He embodied the expansive precision of this movement. When asked about David Carson, postmodern designer and surfer, in 1996, Müller-Brockman replied, “I don’t surf, I dive.”1 His intense quest to achieve a universal system of communication calls to contemporary designers seeking ideal global forms for the world of new media.
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See Kerry William Purcell, Josef Müller-Brockman (New York: Phaidon Press, 2006), 277.
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Musica Viva. The “musica viva” poster is built up on a grid 4.5 fields wide and 4 fields deep. The two words “musica viva” are arranged in a cross, the letters of “musica” being set at irregular intervals so that a rhythm is produced. The lines of the program in small type align with the letters of “musica viva.” In this way an impression is created of a severe but elegant architecture. Format: 128 X 90.5 cm, upright. Colors: bluegreen-white. Illustration and caption from Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockman.
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Grid and Design Philosophy
The use of the grid as an ordering system
Working with the grid system just means
is the expression of a certain mental
submitting to laws of universal validity.
attitude inasmuch as it shows that the designer conceives his work in terms that
The use of a grid system implies the
are constructive and oriented to the future.
will to systematize, to clarify There will to penetrate to the
This is the expression of a professional
essentials, to concentrate
ethos: the designer’s work should have the clearly intelligible, objective,
The will cultivate objectivity instead
functional, and aesthetic quality of
of subjectivity,
mathematical thinking. The will to rationalize that creative and His work should thus be a contribution to
technical production processes
general culture and itself form part of it. The will to integrate elements of color,
“Constructivist design means the conversion of design laws into practical solutions.”
form, and material The will to achieve architectural dominion over surface and space I
Constructivist design that is capable of analysis and reproduction can influence
The will to adopt a positive, forward-
and enhance the taste of a society and
looking attitude
the way it conceives forms and colors. Design that is objective, committed to
The recognition of the importance
the common weal, well composed, of
of education and the effect of work
refined constitutes the basis of democratic
devised in a constructive and
behavior. Constructivist design means the
creative spirit.
conversion of design laws into practical solutions. Work done systematically and
Every visual creative work is a
in accordance with strict formal principles
manifestation of the character of the
makes those demands for directness,
designer. It is a reflection of his knowledge,
intelligibility, and the integration of all
his ability, and his mentality.
factors that are also vital in sociopolitical life.
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Designing Programmes
Karl Gerstner | 1964 8
Design Programmes
Karl Gerstner created a rational, systematic approach to graphic design. As a boy and Basel this pioneer of Swiss typography longed to be a chemist. Unable to afford the extensive training, he turned instead to the visual synthesis of graphic design. Gerstner merged art with science. He developed a comprehensive system capable of generating a broad range of design solutions, and he connected this system to be evolving field of computer programming. Gerstner detailed his approach in Designing Programmes, a book that became a 1960s cult classic. For three decades he run GGK, the advertising agency he founded with Markus Kutter in 1959. He’s barely work with systems-oriented design reveals, in his words, “How much computers change’s—or can change—not only the procedure of the work but the work itself.”1
Manfred Kröplien, “Status Quo at 66” in Karl Gerstner, Review of 5 x 10 Years of Graphic Design etc. (Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2001), 242. 1
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Karl Gerstner
Programme as Logic
The criteria are rough. As the work
Instead of solutions for problems,
proceeds, of course, they are to be
programmes for solutions—this subtitle can
refined as desired. The components are
also be understood in these terms: for no
to be made into parameters and new
problem (so to speak) is there an absolute
components are to be specified, etc.
solution. Reason: the possibilities cannot
Moreover, they are not only rough, they are
be delimited absolutely. There is always a
also not self-contained. The component
group of solutions, one of which is the best
“something else” is the parcel in which the
under certain conditions.
leftovers are packed if the parameter does not breakdown neatly. The designations
To describe the problem is part of the
are imprecise in some cases. There are
solution. This implies: not to make creative
many imperfections. But it is precisely
decisions as prompted by feeling but by
in drawing up the scheme, in striving
intellectual criteria. The more exact and
for perfection, that the work really lies.
complete these criteria are, the more
The work is not diminished; it is merely
creative the work becomes. The creative
transferred to another plane.
process is to be reduced to an act of selection. Designing means: to pick out
The inadequacy of this box is my own and
determining elements combine them.
not inherent in the method. Even so: it
Seeing in these terms, designing calls for
contains thousands of solutions that—
method. The most suitable I know is that
as could be shown by checking an
one Fritz Zwicky has developed, although
example— are arrived at by the blind
actually his is intended for scientists rather
concatenation of components. It is a kind of
than designers. (Die morphologische
designing automatic.
Forschung, 1953, Kommissionsverlag, Winterthur.) I have produced the diagram below in accordance with his instructions and, following his terminology, I have called it “the morphological box of the typogram.” Is the criteria—the parameters on the left, the relative components on the right—following which marks and signs are to be designed from letters.
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Design Programmes
The morphological box of the typogram. Karl Gerstner created this diagram as a typographic adaption from a Swiss Astronomer, Fritz Zwicky. The graph breaks down certain expressive characteristics of typography by row.
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Five creative solution examples. These are five provided examples that could be broken down or blindly generated using Karl Gerstners’ diagram, “the morphilogical box of the typogram”.
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Design Programmes
Solutions from the Programme
an assessable value (apart from black
(Not all the solutions were found with the
always being dark). But if letters of varying
aid of the morphological box. But all those
degrees of darkness are combined (as
phones can be assigned to a place in it
there) the parameter of shade may be the
and analyzed.)
point at which the solution crystallizes out.
If all the components contained in the
Parameters as points of crystallization: I will
trademark intermöbel are added, we
illustrate photos in the section “Expression”
obtain the following chain:
by the following examples:
a 11. (word) – 21. (sans-serif) –
“Reading direction” determines the
33. (composed)
expression of the typograms Krupp and National Zeitung. In both instances the
b 14. (shades combined, viz. light and
component d 15 (combined) forms the
dark) – 12. (achromatic)
basis. In Krupp d 11 (from left to right) is combined with d 14 (otherwise, i.e., from
c 12. (size immaterial, therefore
right to left).
medium) – 22. (proportion usual) – 33. (fat) – 41. (roman)
In the case of National Zeitung the components are d 12 and 13.
d 11. (from left to right) - 22. (normal spacing) – 31. (form unmodified) – 43.
“Spacing,” once again combined in the
(something replaced, viz., the face of
component, is determining in Braun
the letter r by superimposition of the
Electric and Autokredit A.G.
two parts of the word). Not all the components are of equal importance; only two are actually decisive: b 14 + d 43. The importance of “combined” is shown in example b 14: the components lightmedium-dark are not very expressive in themselves because they do not represent
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Karl Gerstner
Programme as Grid
Basic unit is 10 points; the size of the basic
Is the grid programme? Let me put it more
typeface including the lead. The text
specifically: if the grid is considered as
and picture area are divided at the same
a promotional regulator, a system, it is a
time into one, two, three, four, five, and
programme par excellence. Squared paper
six columns. There are 58 units along the
is a (arithmetic) grid, but not programme.
whole width. This number is a logical one
Unlike, say, the (geometric) module of Le
when there are always two units between
Corbusier, which can, of course, be used as
the columns. That is: it divides in every case
a grid but is primarily a programme. Albert
without a remainder: with two columns and
Einstein said of the module: “is the scale
58 units are composed of 2 x 28 + 2 (space
of proportions that makes the bad difficult
between columns); with 3 columns 3 x 18
and a good easy.” That is a programmatic
+ 2 x 2; with 4 columns 4 x 13 + 3 x 2; with 5
statement of what I take to be the aim of
columns 5 x 10 + 4 x 2; with6 columns 6 x 8
“Designing Programmes.”
+ 5 x 2 10-point units.
“The difficulty is: to find a balance, the maximum of conformity to a rule with the maximum freedom.”
The grid looks complicated to anyone not knowing the key. For the initiate it is easy to use and (almost) inexhaustible as a programme.
The typographic grid is a proportional regulator for composition, tables, pictures, etc. it is a formal programme to accommodate x unknown items. The difficulty is: to find a balance, the maximum of conformity to a rule with the maximum of freedom. Or: the maximum of constants with the greatest possible variability. In our agency we have evolved the “mobile grid.” An example is the arrangement below: the grid for the periodical Capital.
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Design Programmes
Example of the mobile grid. This example is a grid that is divided in six different ways at the same time. It divides into one, two three, four, five, and six columns.
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Towards a Universal Type
Herbert Bayer | 1935 16
Towards a Universal Type
Beginning in the 1920s, German type reformers sought ways of replacing the national alphabet—the spiky Blackletter—with simplified gothic letters. A leading advocate was Austrian-born Herbert Bayer (1900–1985), who was educated at the Bauhaus in Weimar and later taught at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where, from 1925 to 1928, he was director of the school’s department of typography and advertising. During this time, his interests-and the department’s emphasis-shifted from lithography and hand-printing to more mechanical processes and more inventive typographic exploration. A devout modernist who was profoundly influenced by the De Stijl movement (1917–1932), Bayer railed against the redundancy of serifs and capital letters, arguing instead for the efficiency of lowercase and the economy of a sansserif alphabet. His universal alphabet of 1925–1927 emphatically illuminates this argument. In this article, published seven years after the Bauhaus was closed, Bayer—who was at this time living in Nazi Germany—explains the practical conveniences of a typographic system that mirrors the functional requirements of modern life. Here, a renunciation of thick-to-thin strokes is contrasted by a celebration of the purity of geometric form.
—Jessica Helfland
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Herbert Bayer
One glance at the specimen book of types
development in type design, and we have
issued by even an up-to-date printing firm,
no intention of criticizing the heritage which
reveals a collection of the most varied sorts
now oppresses us. but we have reached a
of letters, which as a whole constitute a
stage when we must decide to break with
conglomeration of style of the worst kind.
the past. when we are confronted with a
arranged in groups and compared with
collection of traditional styles we ought
other expressions of the periods from
to see that we can turn away from the
which they have descended, they remind
antiquated forms of the middle ages with
us that:
a clear conscience to the possibilities of designing a new kind of type more suitable
today we do not build in gothic, but in
to the present and what we can foresee of
our contemporary way.
the future.
no longer do we travel on horseback,
in the course of the centuries our language
but in cars, train and planes.
has changed. it has become shorter, sound-changes have taken place, new
we do not dress in crinolines
words have been coined, new concepts
nowadays, but in a more
have been formed. language itself needs
rational manner.
complete reorganization-but this is a tremendous subject. we shall not enter
every period has its own formal and
upon it, but limit ourselves to consideration
cultural features, expressed in its
of type-design.
contemporary habits of life, in its architecture and literature. the same
out of the conglomerate mass of type
applies to language and writing. we
faces, some of which are illustrated, there
recognize clearly enough that literary
has emerged, as a last phase, the form of
forms of past ages do not belong to the
classical roman type, with variations until
present times. a man would make himself
we arrive at the simplified form without
ridiculous who insisted on talking today in
serifs, popularly known as “sans-serif” or
the manner of the middle ages.
“sans,” in england the most familiar type
later, we shall see that the type designs of
of this order is commonly known as “gill
tradition do not respond to the essential
sans,” after the name of its designer, eric
requirements of type suitable for use
gill. sans-serif type is the child of our
today. we look back upon a long line of
period. in form it is in complete harmony
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Towards a Universal Type
Universal alphabet and anatomy. The first image displays the alphabet Herbert Bayer created, expressing his argument for the efficiency of the lower case sans-serif alphabet. The second image displays a general anatomy of this alphabet.
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Herbert Bayer
with other visible forms and phenomena
much has been written about the legibility
of modern life. we welcome it as our
of type. oculists can offer no definite
most modern type. we cannot set about
proofs, because their experiments are
inventing an entirely new form of type, as
influenced by habits to which patients
this would have to be parallel with a radical
“we need a one-letter type alphabet. it gives us exactly the same result as the mixed type of capitals and lower-case letters, and at the same time is less of a burden to school children, students, professional and business men.”
reorganization of the language. We must remain true to our basic letter-forms, and try to develop them further. classic roman type, the original form of all historical variations of type, must still be our starting point. all the variations of shape have been formed freely according to the style and the calligraphy of the type designer, and it is just this freedom which has been responsible for so many mistakes. geometry, however, gives us the most
are accustomed. for example, it is found
exact forms. albrecht durer’s endeavours
that old people with bad eyesight often
to resolve both the roman and the german
read complicated gothic type more easily
gothic type into their constructive basic
than clear roman type, because they are
elements, unfortunately were never carried
used to the former. but from research,
beyond their experimental stage. the
however, it has been concluded that the
bayer-type produced by the berthold type
more the individual letters resemble one
foundry represents a practical attempt
another in shape, the less visible is the
to give a modern expression to classical
type. this conclusion may be wrong, as it
roman type by means of geometrical
would be easy to find illegible type-faces
construction of form. a tremendous
in which the individual letters differ very
amount of reading is done today and there
widely from one another, if that be the
should be no difficulties put in the way of
only consideration. and then where shall
the reader. some things have to be read
we look for harmony of form and the
from afar, and letters must be visible from
fundamental constructional form of our
considerable distances. it is not without
types? other research has established that
reason that oculists use clear cut type
whole groups of letters-not single letters,
faces when testing the state of the
but words-are taken in by the eye at one
patient’s eyesight.
glance. if we carried this conclusion to its
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Towards a Universal Type parts of the letter, and renunciation
logical end we should have optical word
of all suggestions of up and down
pictures (similar to chinese signs) and no
strokes. simplification of form for
type with separate letters. personally, i
the sake of legibility (the simpler the
believe in the following logical conception:
optical appearance the easier the
the simpler the shape of the letter, the
comprehension).
easier the type is to see, read, and learn. in classic times capital letters (the only letters in use) were drawn with a slate
a basic form which will suffice for
pencil and incised with a chisel. no doubt
diverse applications so that the same
their form was intimately associated with
character is adaptable for various
these tools. lower case developed in the
functions: printing, typewriting, hand
early middle ages from the use of the pen,
and stencil writing, etc.
and therefore inherits the characteristics of handwriting. later, both alphabets adapted
these considerations will explain the
themselves, and we observe in all types
attempt to design a new type. but why do
up to the present the characteristic basic
we write and print with two alphabets? a
element of the thin up-stroke and the thick
large and a small sign are not necessary
down-stroke. these characteristics have
for one sound. we do not speak a capital a
preserved themselves up to this day. but
and a small a.
do we need such a pretense of precedent at a time when 90 percent of all that is read
we need a one-letter type alphabet. it
is either written on a typewriter or printed
gives us exactly the same result as the
on a printing press, when handwriting
mixed type of capitals and lower-case
plays only a secondary role, and when
letters, and at the same time is less of
type could be much simpler and more
a burden to school children, students,
consistent in form? hence, i believe
professional and business men. it can
the requirements of a new alphabet are
be written considerably more quickly,
as follows:
especially on the typewriter, where a shift key would be unnecessary. typewriting
geometric foundation of each letter,
would therefore be more easily learned.
resulting in a synthetic construction
typewriters would be cheaper because of
out of a few basic e1clnents. avoidance
simpler construction. typesetting would
of all suggestion of a hand-written
be cheaper, type cases smaller; printing
character, uniform thickness of all
establishments would save space. writing
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Herbert Bayer and addressing done in offices would be
alphabets, which completely differ from
much cheaper. these facts apply with
each other in shape and size?
special force in the english language, in which the use of capital letters occurs so infrequently. it seems incomprehensible why such a huge amount of apparatus should be necessary for such little use of capitals. if it is considered necessary to emphasize the beginnings of sentences, this could be done by heavy type or wider spacing. proper names could also be shown in another way, and for the “i” a uniform sign would have to be created. pursuing this thought to its logical conclusion we perceive that the sound of the language ought to be given a systematic optical shape. in order to aim at a simplified type, as against that used today, syllables that frequently recur, and combined sounds (diphthongs, etc. should be given new letter signs).THE CAPITAL LETTERS OF ANCIENT TIMES ARE HARDLY LEGIBLE WHEN THEY ARE FORMED INTO SENTENCES. THEY CANNOT, THEREFORE, BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION. there remains only the small letters of our present-day lower case alphabet. this must be the foundation of our one-letter alphabet. and is not a sentence in a one-letter alphabet, which intrinsically possesses a formally compact construction, more harmonious, logically, than a sentence consisting of two
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Towards a Universal Type
50 Jahre Bauhaus. Herbert Bayer produced this work for the traveling exhibition ‘50 Jahre Bauhaus’, incoorperating elements of his Universal alphabet.
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The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible
Beatrice Warde | 1932 24
The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible
Prior to the turn of the century, practitioners often argued over the virtues of personal style versus neutrality, which was the underlying topic of a lecture given by Beatrice Warde (1900–1969) to the Society of Typographic Designers in London (later published as an essay). Warde, who used the pen name Paul Beaujon, was a respected type historian and critic of the graphic arts industry. In 1927, on the strength Beaujon’s writing in the Fleuron, she was appointed editor of the Monotype Recorder, published in England by the Lanstone Monotype Company. “The Crystal Goblet” is Warde’s bestknown (and most reprinted) essay on the clarity of type and design. In the introduction to her book of collected writing, The Crystal Goblet, she asserts that the essay contains ideas that must be “said over again in other terms to many…people who in the nature of their work have to deal with the putting of printed words on paper—and who, for one reason or another, are in danger of becoming as fascinated by the intricacies of its techniques as birds are supposed to be by the eye of a serpent.” —Steven Heller
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Beatrice Warde
Imagine that you have before you a flagon
bowl, because the connoisseur judges
of wine. You may choose your own favorite
wine partly by its color and is impatient of
vintage for this imaginary demonstration,
anything that alters it. There are a thousand
so that it be a deep shimmering crimson
mannerisms in typography that are as
in color. You have two goblets before
impudent and arbitrary as putting port in
you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the
tumblers of red or green glass! When a
most exquisite patterns. The other is
goblet has a base that looks too small for
of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble,
security, it does not matter how cleverly it
and as transparent. Pour and drink; and
is weighted; you feel nervous lest it should
according to your choice of goblet. I shall
tip over. There are ways of setting lines of
know whether or not you are a connoisseur
type which may work well enough, and yet
of wine. For if you have no feelings about
keep the reader subconsciously worried
wine one way or the other, you will want
by the fear of ‘doubling’ lines, reading three
the sensation of drinking the stuff out of
words as one, and so forth.
a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of
Now the man who first chose glass instead
that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine
of clay or metal to hold his wine was a
vintages, you will choose the crystal,
‘modernist’ in the sense in which I am
because everything about it is calculated
going to use that term. That is, the first
to reveal rather than to hide the beautiful
thing he asked of this particular object was
thing which it was meant to contain.
not ‘How should it look?’ but ‘What must it do?’ and to that extent all good typography
Bear with me in this long-winded and
is modernist.
fragrant metaphor; for you will find that almost all the virtues of the perfect
Wine is so strange and potent a thing
wineglass have a parallel in typography.
that it has been used in the central ritual
There is the long, thin stem that obviates
of religion in one place and time, and
fingerprints on the bowl. Why? Because
attacked by a virago with a hatchet in
no cloud must come between your eyes
another. There is only one thing in the
arid the fiery heart of the liquid. Are not the
world that is capable of stirring and altering
margins on book pages similarly meant
men’s minds to the same extent, and that
to obviate the necessity of fingering the
is the coherent expression of thought.
type page? Again: the glass is colorless
That is man’s chief miracle, unique to
or at the most only faintly tinged in the
man. There is no ‘explanation’ whatever of
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The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible
Decorated wine glass. This illustration visually represents Beatrice Warde’s metaphor, that the more decorated and distracting a wine glass is, the more distracted the taster is from the wine. Likewise, the more decorated and distracting typography is, the more elusive its legibility becomes.
27
Beatrice Warde
the fact I can make arbitrary sounds that
when he bellows. But a good speaking
will lead a total stranger to think my own
voice is one which is inaudible as a voice.
thought. It is sheer magic that I should be
It is the transparent goblet again! I need
able to hold a one-sided conversation
not warn you that if you begin listening
by means of black marks on paper with
to the inflections and speaking rhythms
an unknown person halfway across the
of a voice from a platform, you are falling
world. Talking, broadcasting, writing, and
asleep. When you listen to a song in a
printing are all quite literally forms of
language you do not understand, part
thought transference, and it is this ability
of your mind actually does fall asleep,
and eagerness to transfer and receive the
leaving your quite separate aesthetic
contents of the mind that is almost alone
sensibilities to enjoy themselves
responsible for human civilization.
unimpeded by your reasoning faculties. The fine arts do that; but that is not the
If you agree with this, you will agree with
purpose of printing. Type well used is
my one main idea, i.e., that the most
invisible as type, just as the perfect talking
important thing about printing is that it
voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the
conveys thought, ideas, images, from one
transmission of words, ideas.
mind to other minds. This statement is
“There is no end to the maze of practices in typography, and this idea of printing as a conveyor is, at least in the minds of all the great typographers with whom I have had the privilege of talking, the one clue that can guide you through the maze. ”
what you might call the front door of the science of typography. Within lie hundreds of rooms; but unless you start by assuming that printing is meant to convey specific and coherent ideas, it is very easy to find yourself in the wrong house altogether. Before asking what this statement leads to, let us see what it does not necessarily lead to. If books are printed in order to be read, we must distinguish readability from what the optician would call legibility. A
We may say, therefore, that printing may
page set in 14-pt. Bold Sans is, according
he delightful for many reasons, but that
to the laboratory tests, more ‘legible’
it is important, first and foremost, as a
than one set in 11 pt. Baskerville. A public
means of doing something. That is why it
speaker is more ‘audible’ in that sense
is mischievous to call any printed piece a
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The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible
work of art, especially fine art: because that
I once was talking to a man who designed
would imply that its first purpose was to
a very pleasing advertising type that
exist as an expression of beauty for its own
undoubtedly all of you have used. I said
sake and for the delectation of the senses.
something about what artists think about
Calligraphy can almost be considered a
a certain problem, and he replied with a
fine art nowadays, because its primary
beautiful gesture: ‘Ah, madam, we artists
economic and educational purpose has
do not think—we feel!’ That same day I
been taken away; but printing in English
quoted that remark to another designer
will not qualify as an art until the present
of my acquaintance, and he, being less
English language no longer conveys ideas
poetically inclined, murmured: ‘I’m not
to future generations, and until printing
feeling very well today, I think!’ He was
itself hands its usefulness to some yet
right, he did think; he was the thinking
unimagined successor.
sort; and that is why he is not so good a painter, and to my mind ten times better as
There is no end to the maze of practices
a typographer and type designer than the
in typography, and this idea of printing as
man who instinctively avoided anything as
a conveyor is, at least in the minds of all
coherent as a reason.
the great typographers with whom I have had the privilege of talking, the one clue
I always suspect the typographic enthusiast
that can guide you through the maze.
who takes a printed page from a book and
Without this essential humility of mind,
frames it to hang on the wall, for I believe
I have seen ardent designers go more
that in order to gratify a sensory delight he
hopelessly wrong, make more ludicrous
has mutilated something infinitely more
mistakes out of an excessive enthusiasm,
important. I remember that T. M. Cleland,
than I could have thought possible. And with
the famous American typographer, once
this clue, this purposiveness in the back
showed me a very beautiful layout for a
of your mind, it is possible to do the most
Cadillac booklet involving decorations
unheard-of things, and find that they justify
in color. He did not have the actual text
you triumphantly. It is not a waste of time to
to work with in drawing up his specimen
go to the simple fundamentals and reason
pages, so he had set the lines in Latin.
from them. In the flurry of your individual
This was not only for the reason that you
problems, I think you will not mind spending
will all think of, if you have seen the old
half an hour on one broad and simple set of
typefoundries’ famous Quousque Tandem
ideas involving abstract principles.
copy (i.e., that Latin has few descenders
29
Beatrice Warde
and thus gives a remarkably even line).
I see is the Three Musketeers and their
No, he told me that originally he had set
comrades swaggering up and down the
up the dullest ‘wording’ that he could
streets of Paris. The third type of window
find (I dare say it was from Hansard), and
is one in which the glass is broken into
yet he discovered that the man to whom
relatively small leaded panes; and this
he submitted it would start reading and
corresponds to what is called ‘fine printing’
making comments on the text. I made
today, in that you are at least conscious
sonic remark on the mentality of Boards
that there is a window there, and that
of Directors, but Mr. Cleland said, ‘No:
someone has enjoyed building it. That
you’re wrong; if the reader had not been
is not objectionable, because of a very
practically forced to read—if he had not
important fact which has to do with the
seen those words suddenly imbued with
psychology of the subconscious mind.
glamour and significance—then the layout
This is that the mental eye focuses through
would have been a failure. Setting it in
type and not upon it. The type which,
Italian or Latin is only an easy way of saying
through any arbitrary warping of design
“This is not the text as it will appear.”’
or excess of ‘color,’ gets in the way of the
Let me start my specific conclusions with
mental picture to be conveyed is a bad
book typography, because that contains all
type. Our subconsciousness is always
the fundamentals, and then go on to a few
afraid of blunders (which illogical setting,
points about advertising.
tight spacing and too-wide unleaded lines can trick us into), of boredom, and of
The book typographer has the job of
officiousness. The running headline that
erecting a window between the reader
keeps shouting at us, the line that looks
inside the room and that landscape
like one long word, the capitals jammed
which is the author’s words. He may put
together without hair-spaces—these
up a stained-glass window of marvelous
mean subconscious squinting and loss of
beauty, but a failure as a window; that is,
mental focus.
he may use some rich superb type like text gothic that is something to he looked
And if what I have said is true of book
at, not through. Or he may work in what
printing, even of the most exquisite limited
I call transparent or invisible typography.
editions, it is fifty times more obvious
I have a book at home, of which I have
in advertising, where the one and only
no visual recollection whatever as far as
justification for the purchase of space is
its typography goes; when I think of it, all
that you are conveying a message—that
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The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible
Window with decoration. This image complements Beatrice Warde’s metaphor of a stained glass window. A window covered with stained glass removes the purpose of a window, causing the aesthetic of the window to stand out. This image can be compared to one without decoration on page 32.
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Beatrice Warde
you are implanting a desire, straight into
the other craftsmen) will appreciate half
the mind of the reader. It is tragically easy
your skill. But you may spend endless
to throw away half the reader-interest of
years of happy experiment in devising that
an advertisement by setting the simple
crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold
and compelling argument in a face that
the vintage of the human mind.
is uncomfortably alien to the classic reasonableness of the book-face. Get attention as you will by your headline, and make any pretty type pictures you like if you are sure that the copy is useless as a means of selling goods; but if you are happy enough to have really good copy to work with, I beg you to remember that thousands of people pay hard-earned money for the privilege of reading quietly set book-pages, and that only your wildest ingenuity can stop people from reading a really interesting text. Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which many of the fine arts are even now floundering in self-conscious and maudlin experiments. There is nothing simple or dull in achieving the transparent page. Vulgar ostentation is twice as easy as discipline. When you realize that ugly typography never effaces itself, you will be able to capture beauty as the wise men capture happiness by aiming at something else. The ‘stunt typographer’ learns the fickleness of rich men who hate to read. Not for them are long breaths held over serif and kern, they will not appreciate your splitting of hair-spaces. Nobody (save
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The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible
Window without decoration. This image complements Beatrice Warde’s metaphor of a stained glass window. A window left clear from decorations allows the purpose of a transparent window to be its obvious purpose. This image can be compared to one with decoration on page 30.
33
Colophon
This book adapts a popular software used in modern typesetting, Adobe InDesign CC, highlighting the various insights for ‘ideal’ typography through the lens of four authors.
Printing Printed and binded with a [binding method] binding on [paper type] paper in Canada.
Production Edited with Adobe Indesign CC 2019, Adobe Photoshop CC 2019, and Adobe Illustration CC 2019.
Type Set in Myriad Pro and Raleway.
Editor Edited by Jone Ko. All rights reserved.
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