Jan Tschichold started out by being influenced by one of the first fonts of Rudolf Koch – Maximillian Grotesk. A very German black letter. He also made it a habit to collect the works of masters of the script, such as Pierre Simon.
When he visited a Bauhaus exhibition in 1924, he saw letters with straight edges, made of simple shapes with no flare. After that, as if it happened overnight, his layouts began to have such rigorous structure and composition, filled with white space, straight lines, and thick rules.
He explored ideal ways of laying out a page, using the shape and size of the page for a basis on which the margins would be established. His name was becoming known in the circles of design and typography. Some loved and shared his views, others hated them. But they all knew of him.
The Secret Canon and Page Harmony
Of all the readings, this section about page harmony stood out to me the most. It clearly explained the workflow and careful planning which went into creating a harmonious page layout. This would be really helpful for future projects.
Tschichold’s secret canon expresses that “the key to this positioning of the type area is the division into nine pans of both the width and the height of the page. He also established a new rule — the page ratio is best at 2:3. His reasoning was that it sits within the Fibonacci Sequence, as well as the Golden Ratio, and establishes that the text block will be harmonious and proportional to the page — it’s how the height of it equals the width of the page.
Sabon
Sabon is a font inspired by a Claude Garamond font specimen sheet that would go on to become an instant addition to the annals of classic typographic design. Sabon is an old-style serif font that could be printed identically on Linotype, Monotype or letterpress equipment, simplifying the process of planning lines and pagination when printing a book. This showed the amount of planning and dedication put into creating the font as it had to suit 3 different mediums.
Through the readings, I learn how meticulous and what a perfectionist Jan Tschichold was. On top of that, he stood strong to his beliefs and pushed for his ideas. (shown when he was at Penguin) This is a reminder to me that being a designer is no easy task, a lot of planning and looking into small details is what differentiates a good designer from a great one.