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Quote by Jan Tschichold

“Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of functional design.”

Quote by Jan Tschichold

Book:The new typography: a handbook for modern designers

Work

The new typography: a handbook for modern designers

This book serves as a practical reference for designers seeking to master the art of typography. It covers a range of topics, including the history of typography, the use of various fonts, and the application of typography in design projects. more

Author

Jan Tschichold was a Swiss writer, publisher, and design theorist of German birth. His career spanned various fields including book design, graphic design, and typography. Tschichold is renowned for his contributions to modern design, particularly in the mid-20th century, where his reforms in book design had a profound impact on the design community. more

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“We cannot alter the essential shape of a single letter without at the same time destroying the familiar printed face of our language, and thereby rendering it useless.”

Faces Language Shapes Essentials Letters Familiar Useless Destroying Printed Rendering

Author:Jan Tschichold

“The book designer strives for perfection; yet every perfect thing lives somewhere in the neighborhood of dullness and is frequently mistaken for it by the insensitive.”

Book Perfect Perfection Strive Designer Neighborhood Mistaken Strife Insensitive Dullness Perfect Things

Book:The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design

Source: The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design

“The sanserif only seems to be the simpler script. It is a form that was violently reduced for little children. For adults it is more difficult to read than serifed roman type, whose serifs were never meant to be ornamental.”

Children Littles Seems Form Difficult Type Adults Scripts Meant To Be

Book:The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design

Source: The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design

“White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.”

Space White Design Elements Experience Active Backgrounds Passive Typography White Space

Author:Jan Tschichold

“If you look after truth and goodness, beauty looks after herself.”

Ifs Looks Goodness

Author:Eric Gill

“Letters are things, not pictures of things.”

Book:Autobiography

Source: Autobiography

“The shapes of letters do not derive their beauty from any sensual or sentimental reminiscences. No one can say that the O’s roundness appeals to us only because it is like that of an apple or of a girl’s breast or of the full moon. Letters are things, not pictures of things.”

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Book:Autobiography

Source: Autobiography

“Legibility, in practice, amounts simply to what one is accustomed to.”

Practice Design Amount Accustomed Typography Legibility

Book:An Essay on Typography

Source: An Essay on Typography

“If I see someone I see the ghost of them, the air around them, and where they’ve been. If I see a city I see it’s living ghostliness—the stray looks, the dying hands. I see it’s needs and its discomforts locked in apartments.”

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Book:A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging

Source: A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging

“Books leave gestures in the body; a certain way of moving, of turning, a certain closing of the eyes, a way of leaving, hesitations. Books leave certain sounds, a certain pacing; mostly they leave the elusive, which is all the story. They leave much more than the words.”

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Book:A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging

Source: A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging