New Ty pog raphy in Scandinavia: Domesticating theory and practice amongst the graphic trades, 1927–43 Trond Klevgaard A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Royal College of Art for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Royal College of Art / Victoria and Albert Museum 22 December 2017 79,976 words ii Copyright statement This text represents the submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Royal College of Art. This copy has been supplied for the purpose of research for private study, on the understanding that it is copyright material, and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. iii Abstract This work provides the first extended account of New Typography’s path in Scandinavian countries, a topic which has yet to receive attention beyond a handful of articles and book chapters. Based on an exhaustive study of graphic trade journals published in Denmark, Norway and Sweden between the years of 1927 and 1943, it charts debate on New Typography and discusses the journals’ changing designs. Additional visual material has been sourced from a number of Scandinavian archives. In discussing the spread of New Typography’s theory and aesthetic from elsewhere in Europe, and then primarily from Germany, the thesis uses the concepts of domestication and networks, rather than those of diffusion or influence and centre–periphery. Dealing with a period in which the graphic designer had yet to appear as a professional figure, New Typography’s impact on a range of professional groups — all of which held responsibility for the design of graphic materials — is considered. Particular attention is paid to how the printing trade took up New Typography in its educational efforts to ‘heighten the trade’. However, the differing cultural, organisational and technological factors informing not only the practice of printers, but also that of architects, avant-garde artists, commercial artists, intellectuals and lay-out men, is detailed in order to understand how and why New Typography achieved different levels of penetration amongst these groups. Rather than facilitating an exchange of ideas across professional boundaries, the Scandinavian trade journals serving these various practitioner types formed parts of discreet iv international networks, more likely to report on developments within their particular trade or profession abroad, than on those occurring in related trades or professions at home. The last two chapters deal with how New Typography related to two major cultural and political forces in 1930s Scandinavia: Functionalism and Social Democracy. Commonly perceived as closely related, not only to one another, but to Scandinavian architecture and design of the period, the discussion of these two forces is used to relate typography to the wider design field. It will be argued that whilst initially separate strands, New Typography and Functionalism were quickly conflated, shifting the focus of debate from aesthetic matters to those of function. Taken up as a domestication strategy, this shift paradoxically allowed traditionalist views of typography to be put forward as more progressive than the teachings of Tschichold or the practices of the avant-garde. The use of photomontage was limited in a commercial context. This particular aspect of New Typography was thereby able to retain its radical political associations, and found prominent use in the discreet zones formed by the publications of Clartéist publishing house Mondes Forlag, publications associated with Functionalist architects and the graphic materials created for the Social Democratic parties’ youth and women’s groups. A clear organisational commitment to both Functionalism and New Typography was made by the Swedish cooperative society, Kooperativa Förbundet. It not only made pioneering use of Functionalism in architecture, but established a house style based on New Typography for its ‘konsum’ stores. v Contents Abstract iii Contents page v List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 New Typography 3 Mapping the field 7 Sources and methodology 26 Scandinavia as a unit of study 28 Periodisation 34 Writing from the periphery 38 Structure 46 Chapter 1 51 Origins and networks: The New Typography of the avant-garde, its domestication by German printers and first contacts in Scandinavia A Scandinavian precursor? 52 Origins and spread 56 The avant-garde journal network 63 Scandinavian nodes in the avant-garde journal network 66 The German printing trade domesticates New Typography 87 Type samples as proponents of New Typography 97 New Typography’s reception in Scandinavia 99 A Scandinavian network of printing journals and 102 the appearance of New Typography in type samples Conclusion 110 vi Chapter 2 115 ‘Heightening the trade’: New Typography’s inclusion into the Scandinavian printing trade’s educational efforts New Typography in the Scandinavian trade press 120 Sweden: Nordisk boktryckarekonst and Svensk grafisk årsbok 121 Norway: Norsk trykk and Norsk boktrykk kalender 128 Denmark: De grafiske Fag, EL and Grafisk revy 135 Early engagement with New Typography in the trade schools 141 Skolan för Bokhantverk i Stockholm 143 Fagskolen for Boghaandværk in Copenhagen 150 Educational societies 151 Det grafiske selskap i Oslo 153 Typografernes fagtekniske Samvirke 157 Engagement with New Typography deepens at 170 Fagskolen for Boghaandværk Selmars typografi 173 A turn towards a typography based on historical and 177 calligraphic letterforms in Sweden Conclusion 183 Chapter 3 189 Cultures and practices of advertising: Professional interests, identities and material constraints Advertising cultures 191 Advertising in the printing trade: 200 Jobbing print and the spectre of Artistic Printing ‘American’ advertising men and ‘German’ 205 commercial artists Attitudes towards New Typography in the 210 advertising trade press vii Creators of advertising graphics 222 The jobbing printer 222 The commercial artist 227 Lay-out men and attitudes to the photograph, 240 photomontage and typophoto Conclusion 254 Chapter 4 259 Style, reform and resistance: New Typography’s relationship to Functionalism Functionalism becomes a concern of the printing trade 268 The Stockholm Exhibition’s Programme 269 The typography of the Stockholm Exhibition 273 Funkis and functional typography 280 The term ‘funkis’ and its changing connotations 281 Functional typography 292 Functionalist interpretations of the book 296 Building books for the photographic image 297 The book and the Functional Tradition 307 The novel: as reading machine and book 316 for everyday use Conclusion 323 Chapter 5 329 The Future-people and the Middle Way: The political ties of New Typography and photomontage Artists, poets and intellectuals 336 Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen’s publications 337 The Monde group and Mot Dag 342 Spektrum and Arkitektur och samhälle 355 viii Kooperativa Förbundet and konsum’s graphic identity 362 Party-political graphics 369 Kaj Andersson: Morgonbris 372 Renewed propaganda efforts after 1933 375 Conclusion 388 Conclusion 391 Bibliography 401 ix List of illustrations Chapter 1 Fig. Description Source / Location 1.01 Back cover of MA (Oct. 1922) “MA: Jahrgang 8, Heft 1 1922.” ANNO Historische Österreichische Zeitungen Und Zeitschriften. http://anno. onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=maa&datum=1 922&pos=115&size=45 (accessed March 3, 2017) 1.02 Amadée Ozenfant: “L’Elan, Number 8, 12 January 1916.” Blue Mountain ‘Le Panégyrique du Project: Historical Avant-Garde Periodicals for Digital vicomte Cyprien…’ (1916) Research http://bluemountain.princeton.edu/ bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=d&d=bmtnaaf191601- 01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txin-------# (accessed March 3, 2017) 1.03 Amadée Ozenfant: “L’Elan, Number 9, 12 February 1916.” Blue Mountain ‘Ô Mânes de Gentle Man’ (1916) Project: Historical Avant-Garde Periodicals for Digital Research http://bluemountain.princeton.edu/ bluemtn/cgi-bin/bluemtn?a=d&d=bmtnaaf19160212- 01.2.3&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txin-------# (accessed March 3, 2017) 1.04 ‘Natlig Plads’ (1922) Torben Jelsbak, “Punkt Og Linje På Flade. Grafisk Totaldesign Og Typografiske Punktvirkninger I Dansk Ekspressionisme,” in Bogvennen 2001-03, ed. Sören Möller Christensen, Sören Möller and C-H Zakrisson (Malmö: Forening for boghaandværk, 2006), 114 1.05 Front page of PRESSEN no.24 (1924) Jelsbak, “Punkt Og Linje På Flade”, 117 1.06 Hannes Meyer: “Das Werk : Architektur Und Kunst = L’oeuvre : ‘Zeitgemässe Zeitschriften’ Architecture et Art.” E-Periodica http://www.e- (1926) periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=wbw-002:1926:13#499 (accessed March 3, 2017) Chapter 2 Fig. Description Source / Location 2.19 Cover of Den nya stilens genombrott (1933) Author’s collection 2.20 Invitation cards for Torbjørn Eng, “Grafiske Møteinvitasjoner På Det grafiske Selskap i Oslo (1933) 1930-Tallet,” Typografi i Norge. http://www.typografi. org/dokum/dgs/dgs_invitasjoner.html (accessed July 11, 2015) x Fig. Description Source / Location 2.21 Invitation cards for Torbjørn Eng, “Grafiske Møteinvitasjoner På Det grafiske Selskap i Oslo (1931) 1930-Tallet,” Typografi i Norge. http://www.typografi. org/dokum/dgs/dgs_invitasjoner.html (accessed July 11, 2015) 2.22 Viktor Peterson: Cover and title page, Author’s collection Typografisk årbog 1935(1934) 2.25 Viggo Hasnæs: Title page and spreads Author’s collection from Selmars Typografi(1938) 2.26 Henry Thejls: Title and text page Author’s collection from Asymmetri i Typografi (1943) Chapter 3 Fig. Description Source / Location