New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
Early 20th Century German Hand-Lettering (Sans, not Blackletter)
Posted by jacobh in
26 May 2011 — 2:38pm
26 May 2011 — 2:38pm
I come across a couple of title pages for some of Mahler’s Symphonies, which were published by Kahnt in Leipzig in the early 20th Century. They have the following quite attractive hand-lettering and I wanted to see if I could fine some more examples, but am not quite sure the best way to search for them.
Has anyone else come across a lot of lettering like this or does anyone know what this style might be called (or if anyone has digitalised them)?
(https://www.schubertiademusic.com/img/catalog-4/93/Mahler%206th%20title2...)
Many thanks,
Jacob
User login
Support our Sponsors
26 May 2011 — 3:48pm
Keywords could be "art nouveau" or "secession". See, for example:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/kolo/
For a modern interpretation of the style:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/lamatas/gaisma/
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/lamatas/gaisma-latin/
26 May 2011 — 4:10pm
Thanks, that’s really helpful. I should have realised that that was the style; it’s the lack of ornamentation which threw me.
I think Koloman Moser’s lettering is most similar to the sample and is probably what interests me the most. It’s somewhat less extrovert than Klimt’s (e.g. the bars on the A are horizontal rather than at a 45-degree angle) which appeals to me.
27 May 2011 — 6:26am
Charming. Font please!
hhp
27 May 2011 — 8:39am
Note the charming CH ligatures. They’ve done this to CK also in these days, even in cast type.
27 May 2011 — 9:01am
Looks like the historical inspiration for ITC Benguiat Gothic.
But I know its not.
27 May 2011 — 1:51pm
One more keyword: "Jugendstil".
28 May 2011 — 5:03am
Thanks for the further comments. I’m not sure how well a straight digitalisation of this would work, since it’s charm seems to be in the irregularity of the letters.
I also like how the treatment of the accents changes depending on the size. Compare the ü in “Für Grosses Orchestra” to the ü and ä in “Für 4 Hände” in the lower right text-block. Or the C in the large “C F Kahnt” with the smaller one in “Copyright” on the line below.
28 May 2011 — 11:21am
This looks vaguely similar to a monolinear style of writing developed by Austrian calligraphy Rudolph von Larisch. He was influential in the early twentieth century century. I don't know if von Larisch ever did anything in the mode of Jugendstil, but it seems possible that artists who studied von Larisch's technique might have translated it into this kind of Jugendstil lettering.
29 May 2011 — 4:28am
This was a very common lettering style at the beginning of the 20th century in Germany and Austria and numerous typefaces in this vein got issued from 1904 onwards, e.g. Negrita by Genzsch & Heyse. You’ll find this and lots of other examples in Taschen’s “A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles” from page 74 onwards.
16 Jun 2011 — 12:21pm
Speaking of Larisch:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/hihretrofonts/larisch/