The production of new typefaces is only a necessity under capitalism

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newTypefaces2_1000

Letter Tschichold to Albers, 8 December 1931.

The production of new typefaces is only a necessity under capitalism.

Where advertising is transformed into scientific communication (in socialism) the typeface nonsense is pointless.
Ibid.

If you want to get rid of individualism in the nature of publicity, then it is not enough to replace axial arrangements with asymmetry, fraktur with sanserif typefaces, drawings with photos, and ornament with a supposed functional geometry in design. To that end you must, for better or worse, throw out the baby with the bathwater and deny absolutely all capitalist publicity, root and branch. While private commerce remains in existence, then it is better for it to remain recognizeable as such.
Anonymous review of Die Neue Typographie In Bauhaus, Jg.3, Nr. 2, 1929.

Texts excerpted from Active literature: Jan Tschichold and New Typography, Christopher Burke. Hyphen Press, 2008.

18 x 24 inches
black silkscreen
edition of 100
Los Angeles Art Book Fair, 2017