jan tschichold introduction one of the most outstanding and influential typographers of the 20th century wrote a number of books designed typefaces and worked his entire life as a designer and writer his famous typeface sabon is still a bestseller childhood april 2 1902 he was born in leipzig germany heavily influenced by edward johnston calligraphy ornamental script and applied script rudolph von larisch study in ornamental writing 1919 1921 he attended the academy for graphic arts in leipzig 1921 1923 one of walter tiemann s master pupils and was an assistant to hermann delitsch adulthood 1924 he was heavily influenced by the style of the bauhaus and by elementary and functional design 1925ish during this time mostly robust or bold typefaces were used regular fonts were rarely being used by most typesetters 1925 his article elementary typography appeared in the magazine typographic news and created quite an uproar 1926 he settled in berlin germany 1928 his instructional book the new typography became the bible of every young typesetter adulthood 1933 moves to basel switzerland 1935 book typographic design 1942 book typeface theory practice and sketches he leaves behind the bauhaus and elementary influence and again embraces classic typography and art he also begins to center almost all of his work 1946 reworks the typographic form of penguin books and he instates strict typesetting rules 1949 becomes an honorary member of the london double crown club book the master book of typefaces adulthood 1962 book arbitrary measurement relations of the book page 1967 designs sabon his most popular typeface august 11 1974 he dies in locarno switzerland works advertisement 1922 cover 1925 magazine cover 1928 works cover 1931 book ad 1932 cover 1938 works cover 1945 cover 1951 cover 1949 discussion basically the forefather of typesetting and book design he believed that typography lay in abandoning rules he had a lifelong occupation with arranging typefaces we should look to him for inspiration to find structure within typography conclusion he was a very inspirational and important typesetter of the 20th century his works and fonts are still popular today references http www linotype com 794 inhonorofthe100thbirthdayofjantschichold html http www textism com textfaces index html id 19 http richard91761 tripod com assn3 tschichold htm http www mantex co uk reviews tsch 01 htm