Jan Tschichold was a master typographer. He was originally trained in calligraphy, as he was the son of a signwriter. In spite of his old-school training, Tschichold adopted modernist views in the early 1920's. He remained an advocate for modernism throughout the twenties. He was a fan of all sans-serif fonts, designs that weren't centered, and was one of the first to use various sizes and weights of type.
Tschichold's most well-known book was Die neue Typography, or The New Typography. This book was a sort of bible for modern design. It included his rules for modern design, and ushered us into an era where consumers needed their information quickly and efficiently. At the time, The New Typography was very influential to designers and typographers in Germany, but did not get much press in the United States. Tshichold also wrote The Form of the Book and The Modern Design Dictionary.
In 1931, Tschichold designed three typefaces: Transit, Zeus, and Saskia. In 1967, he released the typeface Sabon. This font was named after Jacques Sabon, who was a famous typographer. The Sabon typeface was first used by Bradbury Thompson for the Washburn College Bible.
The Tschichold grid was a system of columns that gave designers a starting place for their compositions. Since elements of the design could be aligned with the lines of the grid, giving them an easy way to space and place each image or block of text on the page. The grid made it easy to try lots of different arrangements of text, whether they were symmetrical or asymmetrical.
Jan Tschichold is important to us because he was one of the first designers to focus on strong aesthetics and type hierarchy. Though he eventually dabbled back into his classic roots, Tschichold help introduce the design industry to the modern consumer, who didn't have time to read a page worth of text as they walked by a poster on their way to work.
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