Jan Tschichold

Jan Tschichold dedicated his entire life to designing and writing; It is safe to say he was one of the most significant typographers of the 20^th century. Tschichold is most famous for creating of the font Sabon, but also influenced the design industry as a teacher, designer and writer. Born in Leipzig in 1902, Tschichold grew up around the written word having a father who was a script writer. He often helped his father with no regard for incorporating it into his profession later on. Early on Tschichold wanted to go into fine arts but due to his parents concern for stability in that particular field he became a drawing teacher. At the age of 16, Tschichold became inspired by the calligraphy and ornamental writings of Edward Johnson and Rudolf von Larisch and began studying type and editing typefaces from half finished letter from old works from the 17^th century. After teaching for 3 years, Tschichold realized he wanted to be a typeface designer and went to the Academy for Graphic Arts in Leipzig. After visiting his first Bauhaus exhibit in the early 1920’s, he became interested in modern design. He is famous for his design of the font Sabon but also created others such as Transit, Saskia, and Zeus. Soon after he published his most notable book, Die Neue Typography (The New Typography). In this book Tschichold reinforces his interest in sans-serif fonts along with his dislike of centered design. During the Nazi’s rise to power, Tschichold fled to Switzerland remaining there for the majority of his life. For a while he lived in England and worked for Penguin Books redesigning hundreds of books. During his time with Penguin Books Tschichold created many rules and practices, which influenced future designers and typographers. Tschihold died in 1974 but his practices, fonts, and ideas are still influencing designers and typographers today.