UTOPIA - Johannes Itten Monograph

UT OP IA

“Learning from and teachers

joy becomes

Excitingly, Utopia also includes two contributions by women who studied at the Bauhaus with Itten. First, there’s the Oxford blue, geometric cover by Margit Téry-Adler, and then there’s an introduction by Itten, typeset by his student Friedl Dicker and featuring incredible improvisational typography. Her contribution is a technical tour de force, with its puzzle of typefaces, curved words, and overprinting. Ultimately, it’s a fascinating typographic adaptation of Itten’s hand-lettering—combining decorative black letters with regular serif typefaces

Johannes Itten (lettering artist/author), Fried! Dicker (typesetter), annotated proof of Utopia: Documents of Reality (Utopia: Dokumente der Wirklichkeit), 1921, letterpress and pencil, 123⁄4 × 9 inches (323 × 249 mm), Weimar. Collection of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Copyright © 2023 Manas Trivedi

All rights reserved.

CONCLUSION & Closing

As in all of Itten’s exercises, abstract analysis unleashed personal feelings.

UTOPIA Documents of Reality Johannes Itten

This book by early master Johannes Itten captures a lesser-known expressive and gestural aesthetic that was nonetheless part of the school in its Weimar years.

like

As an avid admirer of the power of typography in design, it is a privilege to write the foreword for this monograph on Johannes Itten, one of the most daring and inventive experimental typography designers of our era. Itten has made a lasting impact on the world of design through their bold and unconventional approach to lettering and type design. Itten has consistently challenged the traditional conventions of typography and pushed the boundaries of what is possible with letter forms. Their innovative use of type has opened up new avenues for creative expression and communication. The body of work contained in this monograph showcases the exceptional talent and vision of this truly unique designer.

This monograph provides an in-depth examination of Itten’s work, including their signature style, notable projects, and influence. Through detailed analysis and insightful commentary, the author sheds light on the life and work of this pioneering typography designer.

IMPACT & Influence

1921 Johannes Itten (lettering artist/author) Friedl Dicker (typesetter)

UTOPIA Johannes Itten

Bauhaus 1919 - 2023

Radical innovations in design education

James Volks & Susan Harrison

UTOPIA - Johannes Itten

Second printing edition 2023. Published by IADT, LLC.

1702 Olympic Blvd. Santa Monica, California 90404 310.314.1618

manasseto.myportfolio.com

Copyright © 2023 Manas Trivedi

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be copied, distributed or otherwise exploited in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Manas Trivedi. De minimis portions of this publication may be reproduced solely for use in critical reviews of the publication. This content is provided as-is and is intended for informational purposes only.

Art direction by Manas Trivedi.

Book design by Manas Trivedi.

Edited by Ian

Adjeidu and

Ron Hamilton.

Library of Congress Control Number:

2020904499

ISBN: 978-0-578-65716-5

Printed and bound in Dublin.

FOREWORD

As an avid admirer of the power of typography in design, it is a privilege to write the foreword for this monograph on Johannes Itten, one of the most daring and inventive experimental typography designers of our era. Itten has made a lasting impact on the world of design through their bold and unconventional approach to lettering and type design. Itten has consistently challenged the traditional conventions of typography and pushed the boundaries of what is possible with letter forms. Their innovative use of type has opened up new avenues for creative expression and communication. The body of work contained in this monograph showcases the exceptional talent and vision of this truly unique designer.

This monograph provides an in-depth examination of Itten’s work, including their signature style, notable projects, and influence. Through detailed analysis and insightful commentary, the author sheds light on the life and work of this pioneering typography designer.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Who was Johannes Itten?

In Dessau the former Weimar art-printing workshop was transformed into a printing workshop, later to call itself the printing and advertising work- shop. It now included a small composition department using a sans-serif script in all type sizes, together with a platen press and rotary proof press. Max Gebhard described the activities in the workshop: ‘All the students working here set their own designs and printed them under instruction.. There was much experimentation with printing-together, overprinting and compositions using large wooden type. All the printed materials, forms, posters and publicity brochures needed for Bauhaus purposes were printed in the school’s printing workshop on the basis of designs by Herbert Bayer or the students.

Design and execution thus took place under one roof; this ‘made it possible to structure the preconditions for a new job description: graphic design According to Max Gebhard there was

Instead, Herbert Bayer tirelessly monitored and directed work on the commissions currently under execution. Bayer devoted himself energetically to the emerging science of advertising psychology. His teaching covered topics such as ‘Systematics of advertising’ and ‘Effects on consciousness’. Stylistically speaking, the workshop was now using the ‘new’, ‘elementary typography which Moholy had first introduced at the Bauhaus. Red and black were the dominant colours; other compositional elements included sans-serif type (joined later by futura) and the use of photos and typographical material such as points, rules, bold rules and screens. Arrangement on the plane now respected not the rules of symmetry but the significance of the text, and might be angled or vertical.

This monograph examines Johannes Itten’s role during this era of the bauhaus, his life and his typographic work, Utopia.

Johannes Itten (1888–1967), was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer, and theorist, a member of the Staatliches Bauhaus school, and a founding member of the Weimar Bauhaus.

BACKGROUND Teaching at the Bauhaus

BACKGROUND Teaching at the Bauhaus

He was born in Südern-Linden, Switzerland. From 1904 to 1908 he trained as an elementary school teacher. Beginning in 1908 he taught using methods developed by the creator of the kindergarten concept, Friedrich Fröbel, and was exposed to the ideas of psychoanalysis. In 1909 he enrolled at the École des BeauxArts in Geneva but was unimpressed with the educators there, and returned to Bern. Itten’s studies at the Bern-Hofwil Teachers’ Academy with Ernst Schneider proved seminal for his

The most important personality during this first phase of the Bauhaus was the painter and art theoretician Johannes Itten.Itten had been running his own private art school in Vienna when Gropius was introduced to him by Gropius’ first wife, Alma Mahler (later Werfel). Itten had originally trained as an elementary-school teacher and only took up painting later on. He studied in Stuttgart under Adolf Hoelzel, whose art and composition teachings exerted a profound influence upon him. Itten must have made an immediate impression on Gropius, since the latter invited him to speak on ‘Teachings of the Old Masters’ at the opening of the Bauhaus on 21 March 1919 in the Weimar National Theatre. On 1 June 1919 Itten attended the first meeting of the Council of Masters, where it was agreed he should start teaching on 1 October 1919. Itten’s teaching will be the first to be discussed here since it soon became the backbone of Bauhaus education.

The pedagogical principle on which Itten’s teaching was based can be summarized in a pair of opposites: ‘intuition and method’, or ‘subjective experience and objective recognition’. Itten often started his classes witth gymnastic and breathing exercises to loosen up and relax his students, before seeking to create ‘direction and order out of flow 1°. The discovery of rhythm and the harmonious composition of different rhythms were among the recurring themes of his classes, which were divided into three main areas: studies of natural objects and materials, the analysis of Old Masters and life drawing. Itten had originally trained as an primary school teacher and only took up painting later on. He studied in Stuttgart under Adolf Hölzel, whose art and composition teachings exeried a profound influence upon him. Iten must have made an immediate impression on Gropius, since the latter invited him to speak on ‘Teachings of the Old Masters’ at the opening of the Bauhaus on 21 March 1919 in the Weimar National Theatre.

From 1919 to 1922, Itten taught at the Bauhaus, developing the innovative “preliminary course” which was to teach students the basics of composition and color.

TECHNIQUES

& Style

In these early years the school had no letterpress or typography workshop on-site, so all graphic design was printed with techniques such as stone lithography, intaglio, or relief work. Some materials were produced at an external press with whom specifications were shared. In those early years typeface selection was limited to what the printer had on handLetterpress printing is a technique for printing text and images using raised type and plates. This process was developed in the mid-15th century and was the primary method of printing until the 20th century. Here’s how it worked...

Typesetting: The first step in letterpress printing is typesetting. This involved arranging individual metal or wooden blocks, each with a single letter, into lines of text. Each block was reversed so that the letter faced the opposite direction, and the lines of text were assembled in a special frame called a composing stick.

Inking: Once the type was set, it was placed on a flat surface called a chase, and ink was applied to the type using a roller. The ink was thick and oily, and it took some time to get the right consistency.

Pressing: Next, a sheet of paper was placed on top of the inked type, and the chase was placed in a press. The press applied pressure to the paper, forcing it onto the inked type, and the ink was transferred to the paper.

Drying: Finally, the printed paper was allowed to dry. In the early days of letterpress printing, the paper was hung up to dry, but later on, machines were developed that could dry the paper more quickly.

This process was repeated for each sheet of paper, and the process was time-consuming and laborintensive. However, it allowed for high-quality printing with crisp, clean lines, and it was used to print everything from books and newspapers to posters and advertisements.

Old letterpress machine

UTOPIA Documents of Reality

UTOPIA Documents of Reality

While not published by the Bauhaus, this book by early master Johannes Itten captures a lesserknown expressive and gestural aesthetic that was nonetheless part of the school in its Weimar years. The book contains a section of reproductions of classical paintings accompanied by lithograph reproductions of Itten's commentary. His analysis appears in remarkably dense and chaotic hand-

hand-lettered compositions, the likes of which are rarely seen in graphic design history until the punk and grunge movements of the late twentieth century. Utopia is also a collaborative work, including two student contributions, Hungarianborn Margit Téry-Adler (the wife of the book's publisher, Bruno Adler) designed the cover, and lastly Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, a typesetter.

This project features geometric-constructivist lettering that contrasts with Itten’s irregular organic handwriting inside, and Austrian artist Fried Dicker rendered one of Itten’s essays into striking typographic compositions. Dicker’s improvisational pages form a typeset complement to Itten’s lettering, combining several weights; sizes, and styles of blackletter and roman type--ranging from Unger-Fraktur and Fette Gotisch to Normande, TierannMediaval, and Bernhard-Antiqua-in red and black ink, plus rules, blocks, and dots, to form structural, Dadaesque configurations.

This book by early master Johannes Itten captures a lesser-known expressive and gestural aesthetic that was nonetheless part of the school in its Weimar years.

1921 Utopia Documents of Reality Johannes Itten (lettering artist/author) Friedl Dicker (typesetter)

“Play becomes joy, joy becomes work, work becomes play.”

This quote is a powerful reflection on the nature of graphic design and typography. It speaks to the idea that design can be both playful and serious, and that the creative process can be both work and play at the same time. In graphic design and typography, there is a constant interplay between form and function, aesthetics and communication. Designers must balance the need for creativity and visual impact with the practical considerations of legibility, hierarchy, and readability. This requires a certain level of playfulness and experimentation, as well as a disciplined approach to the technical and functional aspects of design.

At the time, fraktur was the traditional style of type used in Germany for everyday text, but Dicker used it expressively, and freely mixed typefaces within sentences and sometimes even words. She weaved the recently reissued 18th-century design, Unger Fraktur, with a younger Fette Gotisch, which itself had been around for almost half a century and would have been widely available. The bold blackletter with a much lighter style would have been a surprising mix. Normande, an extra heavy Didone, is sprinkled through the book as well. The freshest face, Bernhard Antiqua, is a bold roman serif with wobbly outlines emulating the lettering seen in Lucian Bernhard’s posters and advertising. Despite being a relatively modern design, the typeface’s centered symmetrical specimens show that it was intended for different typography than Dicker’s.

Fonts in use

Lithograph and letterpress with photolithograph tip-ons and tissue paper tip-ins

1921 UTOPIA Johannes Itten Friedl Dicker

Interiors © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York ProLitteris, Zurich

Itten collaborated with Dicker on one of the most ambitious typographic work of the school’s early years a series of prints created for the almanac Utopia: Documents of Reality, published by German art historian Bruno Adler. The prints were based on an exercise from Itten’s preliminary course where students trace the structure of Old Masters paintings in search of the works’ spiritual movement.

in all of Itten’s exercises, abstract analysis unleashed personal feelings.

As

According to one famous anecdote, Itten yelled at a roomful of students who failed to weep while studying a lantern slide of a medieval altarpiece.In Utopia, Itten endeavored to explain his Old Masters exercise with text, spelling out his process in lines, blocks, and curving waves of words. The project includes ten red-and-black letterpress prints inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s painting John the Baptist in the Desert (circa 1489) and a set of lithographs featuring hand-drawn text inspired by five historical works of art. The colophon names Itten as the project’s primary author.

but gives design credit to Dicker: “Typesetting and printing directed by Fried Dicker.” While the lithographs were likely drawn in Itten’s own hand, the letterpress prints fell to Dicker, Itten’s trusted student and acolyte. This interpretation and transformation required hours of meticulous labor to design and produce. Dicker wrote to her friend Anny Wottiz in 1920 or ‘21, “I typeset an essay from Itten for two weeks and am so weak I can scarcely say when I can come from there Two days

The Weimar printshop had no letterpress facilities, so Dicker typeset the work elsewhere. Her selection of fonts-from Germanic Fraktur to delicate roman capitals and high-contrast advertising faces-approximates the range of Itten’s lettering in the lithographs. The text begins, “I have now tried to show the movement characters in the form of five masterpieces, both graphically and by means of the written and word form.” The text goes on to describe the patience required to experience this typographic “tracing” of historical paintings. The typography demands much of its readers. The final line reads, “You inherit the artwork. It is reborn in you.” Dicker’s visual translations of Itten’s words are Bauhaus’s most formidable work of typography.

After leaving the Bauhaus in 1923, Dicker worked as an artist and a designer in Berlin, Prague, and Hronov, a town in the present-day Czech Republic. Between 1943 and 1944, she taught art to children in the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp. The exercises she conducted with these children included collages inspired by Old Masters paintings as well as rhythmic and observational drawing. Dicker saved over 4,000 artworks created by her students before she was deported to Auschwitz and murdered in 1944; they are preserved today in the Jewish Museum in Prague. Among her students who survived, several became founders of the new disciplines of art therapy and child psychology, seeding another Bauhaus legacy.

“You inherit the artwork. It is reborn in you.”

“Learning from books and teachers is like traveling by carriage, so we are told in the Veda. But, the carriage will serve only while one is on the highroad. He who reaches the end of the highroad will leave the carriage and walk afoot”.

UTOPIA Documents of Reality

For the privately published Utopia, Itten paired reproductions of classical art with commentary in the form of dense and chaotic hand-lettered compositions, the likes of which are rarely seen in graphic design history until the punk and grunge movements of the late twentieth century. While not a Bauhaus publication, he collaborated with his students from the school. Margit TéryAdler designed the cover, and Friedl Dicker is credited for typesetting and directing the printing at large.

Dicker’s pages complement Itten’s lettering, in some ways translating his wild sketches into typographic form. Yet they have a refreshing look all their own. She practically painted with type, setting words on curved baselines, mixing cases and fonts, and using red backgrounds and underlines to highlight and bolster the black text. It must have required immense skill and patience to create these light and dynamic designs with metal type on a letterpress which resists anything beyond the default rectangle.

Excitingly, Utopia also includes two contributions by women who studied at the Bauhaus with Itten. First, there’s the Oxford blue, geometric cover by Margit Téry-Adler, and then there’s an introduction by Itten, typeset by his student Friedl Dicker and featuring incredible improvisational typography. Her contribution is a technical tour de force, with its puzzle of typefaces, curved words, and overprinting. Ultimately, it’s a fascinating typographic adaptation of Itten’s hand-lettering—combining decorative black letters with regular serif typefaces and the occasional bold san serif

UTOPIA?

Johannes Itten and Mazdaznan at the Bauhaus

As leader of the preliminary course from 1919 to 1923, Johannes Itten of Switzerland was the school’s spiritual guide, defining its early utopian phase. The preliminary course sought to strip away conventions, plunging students into fresh acts of expressive abstraction and physical making. Line, shape, and texture were conduits to self-knowledge and personal renewal. The preliminary course laid the ground for foundational programs around the world, which are still widely implemented today.

Itten was a zealous promoter of Mazdaznan, an eclectic religious movement founded by Otto Hanisch, a German-born American. Culling beliefs from Zarathustrian, Christian, and

Hindu traditions, Mazdaznan demanded a bodily regimen of sexual abstinence, cleansing enemas, and controlled breathing, as well as a vegetarian diet laden with garlic and onions. These rigors aimed to achieve more than personal wellness; Mazdaznan promoted deplorable racial views and sought to purify the so-called white race. (The doctrine considered Jews to be white.) Some of Itten’s own students followed him to the Bauhaus and formed a substantial Mazdaznan colony at the school, where Itten promoted the religion’s wellness aspects along with its white supremacist views, with Gropius’s initial support. Eventually, however, tensions around Mazdaznan developed.

Gropius feared that Itten’s mystical bent endangered the Bauhaus’s reputation as a serious school for the applied arts. The teacher’s polarizing philosophy had also produced a schism within the student body (half of which continuously smelled of garlic and onion, to the apparent annoyance of the other half ). While it is not clear if the Bauhaus director also recognized parallels between Mazdaznan’s eugenics principles Vand those of the then-nascent Nazi party, strain between the two men resulted in Itten’s departure in 1923. Before he left, Itten made a profound impact on his most extraordinary pupil, Fried Dicker.

Johannes Itten (lettering artist/author), Fried!

Dicker (typesetter), annotated proof of Utopia: Documents of Reality (Utopia: Dokumente der Wirklichkeit), 1921, letterpress and pencil, 123⁄4 × 9 inches (323 × 249 mm), Weimar. Collection of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

UTOPIA demonstrates some of the finest typographic experiments to ever come out of the Bauhaus. It sets the tone for contemporary lettering in the next few decades.

This project introduced new ideas, it presented a new way of thinking about art and design. It introduced the concept of the “elemental” form, which focused on basic shapes, colors and lettering.

IMPACT & Influence

In Utopia, Itten analyzed old paintings and compositions. And some of his analyses appear as very expressive, scratchy, and rough typographic compositions.

In our opinion, hand-lettering like it is just waiting to be recuperated as an element of the Bauhaus aesthetic, and it got left behind as the rationalist, modernist, geometric aesthetic became so institutionalized.

And lettering like Itten’s—whether it’s a direct reference or not—resurfaces decades later in punk and grunge, as well as early digital maximalist design that you find in something like Emigre or Fuse.

IMPACT & Influence

Johannes Itten’s typography experiments were groundbreaking in their time and continue to influence typography and graphic design today. Itten was one of the first designers to explore the use of simple, geometric forms and a clear hierarchy of information in typography, and his experiments with color and form had a significant impact on the development of modern design. One of Itten’s most significant contributions to typography was his emphasis on the use of a grid system. He believed that a grid system was essential to creating a balanced and harmonious layout, and he experimented with different grid structures and their relationship to the content being presented

Itten’s work with grids helped establish a standard approach to typography layout that is still widely used today. Itten’s experiments with color theory also had a significant impact on typography and design. He believed that colors had specific psychological and emotional associations, and he developed a system of color harmonies that are still used today in fields such as advertising and branding. Itten’s work on color theory helped to establish a standardized approach to color use in typography and graphic design. In addition to his experiments with grids and color, Itten also explored the relationship between type and image. He believed that the two should work together to create a cohesive and visually compelling design.

His experiments with the use of different typefaces and their relationship to the content being presented helped to establish a new approach to typography that prioritized visual expression over conventional design norms. Itten’s typography experiments and design philosophy continue to have a significant influence on typography and graphic design today. His emphasis on the study of natural forms, the use of grids in layout, and the relationship between type and image have become fundamental principles in modern typography and design. His legacy as a typography designer, artist, and educator remains an important contribution to the history and development of graphic design and this impact can still be seen in today’s lettering.

CONCLUSION & Closing

In conclusion, Johannes Itten was a highly influential figure in the world of typography design and art education. His work as a teacher at the Bauhaus and his writings on color theory, design, and form continue to have a significant impact on the field of design today. Itten's emphasis on the study of natural forms, the use of grids in layout, and the relationship between type and image were groundbreaking in his time and continue to be fundamental principles in modern typography and design. His legacy as a typography designer, artist, and educator remains an important contribution to the history and development of graphic design.

ENDMATTER

IMAGES

exhibitions.letterformarchive.org

ARTICLES

eyeondesign.aiga.org

encyclopedia.design

Bauhaus Typography at 100

Letterform Archive

QUOTES

art-quotes.com

“Learning from and teachers

joy becomes

Excitingly, Utopia also includes two contributions by women who studied at the Bauhaus with Itten. First, there’s the Oxford blue, geometric cover by Margit Téry-Adler, and then there’s an introduction by Itten, typeset by his student Friedl Dicker and featuring incredible improvisational typography. Her contribution is a technical tour de force, with its puzzle of typefaces, curved words, and overprinting. Ultimately, it’s a fascinating typographic adaptation of Itten’s hand-lettering—combining decorative black letters with regular serif typefaces

Johannes Itten (lettering artist/author), Fried! Dicker (typesetter), annotated proof of Utopia: Documents of Reality (Utopia: Dokumente der Wirklichkeit), 1921, letterpress and pencil, 123⁄4 × 9 inches (323 × 249 mm), Weimar. Collection of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Copyright © 2023 Manas Trivedi

All rights reserved.

CONCLUSION & Closing

As in all of Itten’s exercises, abstract analysis unleashed personal feelings.

books teachers is like UTOPIA Documents of Reality Johannes Itten

This book by early master Johannes Itten captures a lesser-known expressive and gestural aesthetic that was nonetheless part of the school in its Weimar years.

As an avid admirer of the power of typography in design, it is a privilege to write the foreword for this monograph on Johannes Itten, one of the most daring and inventive experimental typography designers of our era. Itten has made a lasting impact on the world of design through their bold and unconventional approach to lettering and type design. Itten has consistently challenged the traditional conventions of typography and pushed the boundaries of what is possible with letter forms. Their innovative use of type has opened up new avenues for creative expression and communication. The body of work contained in this monograph showcases the exceptional talent and vision of this truly unique designer.

This monograph provides an in-depth examination of Itten’s work, including their signature style, notable projects, and influence. Through detailed analysis and insightful commentary, the author sheds light on the life and work of this pioneering typography designer.

IMPACT & Influence

ENDMATTER 30

Lithograph and letterpress with photolithograph tip-ons and tissue paper tip-ins

1921 Johannes Itten (lettering artist/author) Friedl Dicker (typesetter)

UTOPIA

As an avid admirer of the power of typography in design, it is a privilege to write the foreword for this monograph on Johannes Itten, one of the most daring and inventive experimental typography designers of our era. Itten has made a lasting impact on the world of design through their bold and unconventional approach to lettering and type design. Itten has consistently challenged the traditional conventions of typography and pushed the boundaries of what is possible with letter forms. Their innovative use of type has opened up new avenues for creative expression and communication. The body of work contained in this monograph showcases the exceptional talent and vision of this truly unique designer.

This monograph provides an in-depth examination of Itten’s work, including their signature style, notable projects, and influence. Through detailed analysis and insightful commentary, the author sheds light on the life and work of this pioneering typography designer.