Post 5: Early 20th Century Typeface Designers and Trends

By 1900 Blackletter typefaces still competed with Roman only in Germany and Scandinavia.
Edward Johnston
Although William Morris began the revival of the calligraphic tradition in Britain, Edward Johnston made a more significant contribution to the rediscovery of calligraphy after having extensively examined manuscripts held by the British Museum. He published "Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering" in 1906. German typography, which was still using Blackletter scripts was brought up-to-date when Johnston's book was translated into German by one of Johnston's pupils. Johnston's influence also reached America. In 1916 Johnston created a sans-serif 'Johnston' typeface for London Transport, used throughout the London Underground system until it was re-designed in the 1980s, as well as the famous roundel symbol used throughout the system.

The decade prior to World War I saw the formation of the New Book Art movement which was also influenced by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The type designers of this movement included Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke and Frederich Wilhelm Kleukens, together with Walter Tiemann, Friedrich Hermann Ernst Schneidler and Rudolf Koch. They didn't accept the ornamentalism and curved lines of Art Nouveau design, preferring instead a more straightforward approach that reflected the ideas of the Renaissance.
Frederick William Goudy
The American type designer, Frederick W. Goudy, another of the many influenced by William Morris, went on to create more than 100 typefaces throughout his working life. Having been the first professional type designer, he joined Lanston Monotype Corporation in 1908. His most successful typefaces were 'Copperplate Gothic' (c.1905), 'Goudy Old Style' (1915) and 'Goudy Modern' (1918). He also developed 'Forum', and 'Trajan' which he based on the Roman capital letters found on Trajan's column, and a number of Blackletter and display typefaces.
Art Deco Influences
By the time the first World War began in 1914 the influence of the Art Nouveau movement was fading and being replaced by a plain, more rectilinear approach. The Art Deco designs that took over were cheaper to produce than their highly-stylised, Art Nouveau predecessors.
Eric Gill
Eric Gill, influential throughout the 20th century for his typographic designs, was also a sculptor, calligrapher, engraver, writer and teacher. In 1900 Gill moved to London to learn to learn practical masonry. He studied writing and illuminating at the Central School of Art and Design where he was directly influenced by Edward Johnston. He designed his 'Gill Sans' in 1927. Stanley Morison commissioned Gill to design typefaces for the Monotype Corporation, for example 'Perpetua' in 1927. Gill published "An Essay on Typography" in 1931. This was an important text which dealt with its subject matter in great depth and complexity.
Modernism
Jan Tschichold was a young calligrapher, freelance designer and writer when in 1923 he attended the first Weimar Bauhaus exhibition. He published "Typographische Mitteilungen" in 1925 and "Die neue Typographie" in 1928. Tschichold claimed that typefaces should be laid out asymmetrically and be strictly functional. He believed that symmetry led to the decorative and artificial placement of words; that decoration being unrelated to the meaning of the words. The popularity of sans-serif typefaces, as they were devoid of non-essential elements, can be seen in the number of sans-serif typefaces introduced at that time, such as 'Erbar' (Jakob Erbar, 1922), Futura (Paul Renner, 1927) and Kabel (Rudolf Koch, 1927). However, at the time of all these innovations the Blackletter tradition still continued in Germany. During the early Nazi period, Hitler endorsed Blackletter typefaces as authentic. His position changed suddenly in 1941 when the use of Blackletter was banned completely. They never regained popularity and tend to be seen in current times only on Diplomas and on official documents, and in skinhead and Neo-Nazi subculture.

Tschichold moved to Switzerland after having been placed temporarily in custody and accused by the Nazis of encouraging radical ideas. In 1935 he published his "Typographische Gestaltung" having decided that the new typography reminded him too much of the harshness of the fascists. He also changed his mind, to some extent, about serifs and determined that some serifed typefaces were more readable than sans-serif types. Tschichold lived in England in between 1947 and 1949 when he redesigned Penguin Books's paperbacks. He established set rules, the 'Penguin Composition Rules', that gave the range a standardised appearance but which also allowed the nature of each individual book to shine through. After retuning to Switzerland he continued to design. The typefaces he created include 'Transit' (1931), 'Saskia' (1931-2), 'Zeus' (1931) and 'Sabon' in 1967. 'Sabon' was named after Jacques Sabon, a French type founder of the 16th century who worked with Claude Garamond on Roman typefaces. There is some confusion as to which were Sabon's own work as he had been able to acquire some of Garamond's type collection when Garamond died. Tschichold designed 'Sabon' to reproduce identically regardless of whether it was being used on a Monotype or a Linotype system.
Stanley Morison
Stanley Morison was a very influential English typographer, designer, writer and historian of printing. Morison was a founding member of the 'Fleuron Society', an organisation dedicated to typographical matters. Fleuron was a term used for a typographical flower or ornament. Morison was editor of the society's journal 'The Fleuron' from 1925 to 1930. He wrote "First Principles of Typography"  which was initially published in 1930 and re-published in book form in 1936, at which time it became considered an authoritative text. His great influence was largely due to his work as a typographic consultant for the Monotype Corp. from 1923 to 1967. He designed 'Blado' (1923) and re-designed 'Bembo' (1929) for Monotype. It was Morison who, in 1960, commissioned Tschichold to design 'Sabon'. Morison also commissioned the German typographic designer Wolpe, who had introduced his first new typeface 'Hyperion' in 1932, on behalf of Monotype. The results were that Wolpe created 'Albertus' (1935-7) and bold and light versions (1940). Morison was also a typographical consultant to 'The Times' newspaper from 1929 to 1960. In 1931-2 he became involved in the re-design of the paper as a consequence of having written an article publicly criticising the poor quality the poor quality of the printing. The result was 'Times New Roman', a new, more-legible and economical of space typeface to replace 'Times (Old) Roman'. Times New Roman became a Monotype typeface in 1933.