The New Typography in Scandinavia: Modernist Design and Print Culture

by Trond Klevgaard

Overview

This is the first monograph on Scandinavia's 'New Typography'. It provides a detailed account of the movement's lifespan in the region from the 1920s up until the 1940s, when it was largely incorporated into mainstream practice.

The book begins by tracing how the New Typography, from its origins in the central and eastern European avant-garde, arrived in Scandinavia. It considers the movement's transformative impact on printing, detailing the cultural and technological reasons why its ability to act as a modernising force varied between different professional groups. The last two chapters look at how New Typography related to Scandinavian society more widely by looking at its ties to functionalism and social democracy, paving the way for a discussion of the reciprocal relationship between the culture of practitioners and the cultural work performed through their practice.

Based on archival research undertaken at a number of Scandinavian institutions, the book brings a wealth of previously unpublished visual material to light and provides a fresh perspective on a movement of central and enduring importance to graphic design history and practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350112407
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/15/2020
Series:	Cultural Histories of Design
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Trond Klevgaard is Associate Professor of Design History and head of the degree program in Graphic Design at Kristiania University College, Norway.
Trond Klevgaard is a design historian and graphic designer. He is Associate Professor of Design History at Kristiania University College, Norway, where he was previously head of the degree program in Graphic Design. He holds BA (Hons) and MA degrees in graphic design from London College of Communication, UK, and a PhD in History of Design from the Royal College of Art, UK.

Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures
List of Plates
Acknowledgements
Note on Translation
Introduction

1. Origins and Networks
Origins of the New Typography
Scandinavian Nodes in the Avant-Garde Network

Section One: Printing and Advertising Cultures

2. Modification: The Printing Trade's Versions of the New Typography
The New Typography from Avant-Garde Printing to Trade
The New Typography in Scandinavian Printing Education

3. Compartmentalization: Cultures and Practices of Advertising
Jobbing Print, Commercial Art and Lay-Out
Discreet Professional Communication Networks
Competing Cultures of Design and Production

Section Two: Printing and Society

4. Realignment: Functionalism as Ideology, Style and Resistance
From Elementarism to Functionalism
From Funkis to Functional Typography
Towards the Functional Book

5. Isolation: Future-People and Rational Consumers
The Swedish Cooperative Society: Adopter of 'Wild' New Typography
Print Designs of the Avant-Garde Left
Targeting the Young and Femaile Vote through 'Wild' Photomontage

6. Assimilation
The New Typography Under Occupation
A New Style in Neutral Sweden

Conclusion
Glossary

Editorial Reviews

The history of modernism in typography is too often told through a limited number of familiar pieces of work, with the emphasis on a small cast of central and eastern European characters. Through thorough research into contemporary accounts, and by not concentrating solely on the avant-garde, Trond Klevgaard opens our eyes to Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish designers whose work in the mid-20th century was international in inspiration but decidedly Scandinavian in application. This book brings a much-needed northern European perspective to the history of the 'new typography'.” —Paul Luna, Emeritus Professor at the University of Reading, UK

“Klevgaard explains the publishing environment in which New Typography took shape in Scandinavia. We come to understand the “domestication” of modernist typography not as a misunderstanding of its more well-known Central European prototypes, but rather as a sensible adaptation to the varying interests of publishers, tradespeople, readers, and organizations there. Well researched and clearly written, this study will open many eyes to typography rarely seen outside of the region. It also demonstrates how the histories of social organizations and of industrial structures, no less than the histories of ideas and of visual forms, are key to understanding the history of modernist design.” —Craig Eliason, Professor of Art History, University of St. Thomas, USA

From the Publisher