Jan Tschichold

Jan Tschichold is most remembered for his type faces:

• Transit (1931)
• Saskia (1931/1932)
• Zeus (1931)
• Sabon (1966/1967) - named after Jacques Sabon.

Jan was born to a signwriter, and later in his life he was trained as a calligrapher. When the Modernist movement came, he advocated only San Serif type. He did not like any other type.

Jan also wrote books. One of his most noted book is called "Die neue Typographie." It was considered to be the "manifesto of modern design." In this book he shows his favoritism towards sans serif types.

Why was Jan Tchichold so important?

"He advocated the use of standardised paper sizes for all printed matter, and made some of the first clear explanations of the effective use of different sizes and weights of type in order to quickly and easily convey information."

Tchichold also made many brochures and manuscripts that conveyed many more effective ways to more quickly and efficiently convey messages and information with typography.

In the 1940's, Tchichold helped Penguin Books redesign over 500 of their books with appropriate rule of typography which was called the Penguin Composition Rules.