Although there is no need to present another showing of Helvetica, this one is too bad-ass not to share. Has there ever been a more bad-ass poster about calligraphers and letterers? (That was not an invitation for you to send us posters about calligraphers and letters that you think are more bad ass.) This one by Georg Schmid is a total stunner and one of our all-time favorites. Also, it’s a good excuse to look up the work of Lore Bujatti, Friedl Goldschmid, Hertha von Larisch, Epi Schlüsselberger, Georg Schmid, Gretl Wollner, and Leo Wollner. Get to it.

Same Bold Stories? Type Design by Women and Queers in the 20th and 21st Centuries is an exhibition shown in Offenbach am Main, Germany, through November 24th. The concept for the exhibition was developed in co-operation between the Klingspor Museum (Dr. Dorothee Ader, Valerij Ledenev, Tatjana Prenzel), the design studio turbo type (Laura Brunner, Leonie Martin) and the feminist collective +FEM (Kristina Mukhacheva, Naomi Rado).

From an article written by turbo type for Fontstand (with added links):

For a long time, the history of type design and typography was written from a purely male perspective. Research in the field of type design now increasingly focuses on women, who were already active in the type production at the beginning of the 20th century without really achieving visibility.

This new exhibition presents a critical view of the Klingspor Museum’s type-related collections, which largely cover the period between 1900 and 1950. Where are the female positions that supplement the existing historiography of type design? Only a few women, such as Anna Simons, Erika Giovanna Klien, or Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse achieved wider recognition during their lifetime. In addition, there are type designers such as Elizabeth Friedlander, Ilse Schüle, Anna Maria Schildbach, Maria Ballé and numerous students from the lettering classes of Rudolf von Larisch in Vienna and Rudolf Koch in Offenbach whose works are included in the collection. Their biographies and practices are being brought into focus for the first time.

The title is set in two weights from Laura Meseguer’s Sisters. The “clouds” with numbers highlighting the poor representation of women in design use Margo+Beuys by Giulia Boggio.

See also the post about the accompanying publication.

The cover features Fabio XM, Margo+Beuys and RYM.

Same Bold Stories? Type Design by Women and Queers in the 20th and 21st Centuries is a bilingual publication accompanying the exhibition of the same title (see the dedicated post).

From an article written by turbo type for Fontstand (with added links):

A book accompanying the exhibition was released on August 23rd, offering an informative theoretical extension to the exhibited works. Essays and interviews by and with contemporary acteurs of the international type scene, such as ALT.tf, Nadine Chahine, Katharina Koch, Laura Meseguer and Teal Triggs, reveal that historiography is rarely “complete” and that gaps can only be filled, if at all, by consciously engaging with them.ly engaging with them.

Edited by Klingspor Museum and Naomi Rado, the publication includes contributions by Petra Eisele & Isabel Naegele (UN/SEEN – SEEN), Teal Triggs, Giulia Boggio, Amber Weaver, Nadine Chahine, Laura Meseguer, Katharina Koch, Dorothee Ader, Tatjana Prenzel, Valerij Ledenev, and Naomi Rado. The book design was provided by Leonie Martin of turbo type together with Masha Egorova, using a range of typefaces designed by women and queers. One typeface that’s featured in the book but not shown in the included images is CoFo Sans Mono.

Contents spread ft. Fabio XM, Margo+Beuys, Sisters, Kéroïne, Unfamiliar, Bastardo Grotesk, Gupper Display, and V1olet.

Preface with Milkman, Domino Mono, and Bastardo Grotesk

Questions over questions in Fabio XM

Mini glossary ft. Kéroïne in roman and italic

“ABCDEFLINTA*” in Galgo Condensed

Text about Anna Simons set in Kéroïne

Kafa by Nadine Chahine and Sisters by Laura Meseguer, plus ALT Rigatoni for the byline

Interview ft. Fabio XM

Margo+Beuys and Fabio XM

The interview with Teal Triggs is introduced with V1olet.

Interview with Giulia Boggio and Amber Weaver in Margo+Beuys and Bastardo Grotesk

The headlines in Katharina Koch’s contribution are set in her Unfamiliar.

Spread ft. .notdef glyphs and Oakland a.k.a. Lo-Res 9 Wide Bold Alt

Bibliography ft. Women’s Car Repair Collective and Kéroïne

Unpublished flower, Kratzdistel [thistle].

Rudolf Koch started to draw wild flowers in 1922. He explains that he “collected [flowers] at random and without any particular aim. I sketched only the ones which grew in and around Offenbach … This collection is intended to give people a taste of summer while it is winter.” One member of Koch’s Werkstatt, the young Fritz Kredel, engraved most of the 250 drawings. The flowers were printed from woodcuts and entirely hand coloured. The remarkable edition of Das Blumenbuch [The Flower Book] was published several times between 1929 and 1942, from small pocket book editions to precious volumes and portfolios, involving many collaborators, printers, and publishers like Mainzer Presse, Ernst-Ludwig-Presse in Darmstadt, and Insel-Verlag, Leipzig.

About the Blumenbuch, an essay by Jérôme Knebusch, compiles a detailed chronology of the different editions and presents rare and unpublished material from the archives of the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach. It is the first of the Poem Pamphlet series co-edited with Alice Savoie.

Designed by the author and typeset in Instant, Almost (unreleased italic), and Jessen “Cicero”, the 12pt version Koch cut for the Blumenbuch. Digital revival by Alexis Faudot & Rafael Ribas, after a workshop at ESAD •Valence in 2016 (freely available from ANRT’s GitHub).

More info at poem-editions.com.

Rudolf Koch’s letter to Ernst Kellner, 1933. Typeset in Jessen.

Waldkerbel [woodchervil], Rudolf Koch’s original drawing, undated.

Waldkerbel [woodchervil], woodblock by Fritz Kredel.

Typeset in Instant Heavy and Almost italic (unreleased).

Typeset in Instant Heavy and Almost Italic (unreleased).

Title plate of the limited portfolio edition. Calligraphy by Berthold Wolpe. Cut in wood by Fritz Kredel.

Fritz Kredel’s signature at the back of a woodblock.

Die Frucht (The Fruit) is a newspaper that was created at the Klingspor Museum for Book Art, Typography and Calligraphy in Offenbach, Germany during the annual “Night of the Museums” event as result of a performative night shift by the designers of U9 visuelle Allianz. It was designed with scanner, typewriter and webcam, using bodies, guests, smartphones and cacti. The typeface in use is Roxane Gataud’s typeface Bely.