Jan Tschichold

Born in Leipzig, Germany, on 2 April 1902, Tschichold studied at the Leipzig academy of graphic arts and book trades.² Richard Hollis notes that he worked as an avant-garde typographer in Germany during the 1920s.⁵

In 1925, Tschichold published Elementare Typographie, examining the typographic work of El Lissitzky.¹ He subsequently wrote The New Typography, which set out a functionalist and information-based theory of typographic design.⁴

In March 1933, Tschichold was taken into Nazi custody.⁵ The Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names states that he was expelled from Germany by the Nazis in 1933 due to their objections to his "un-German" typography.¹ He subsequently emigrated to Switzerland during the period of Nazi rule.¹

Following his early avant-garde period, Tschichold's later work shifted toward the classical, symmetric style that he had previously criticized.¹ Richard Hollis reports that Tschichold is primarily remembered in Britain for his postwar refashioning of Penguin paperbacks.⁵ The Penguin book covers utilized color coding, featuring orange for fiction, green for crime, and blue for biography.⁵

Tschichold also designed multiple typefaces, including Sabon in 1967, and became a citizen of Basel in 1942.² He returned to Switzerland in 1949 and died on 11 August 1974 in Locarno.¹