The New Typography in Scandinavia: Modernist Design and Print Culture

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This is the first in-depth work on Scandinavia's 'New Typography'. It provides a detailed account of the movements 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 movements transformative impact on printing, detailing the cultural and technological reasons why its ability to act as a modernizing 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Based on archival research undertaken at a number of Scandinavian institutions, the book brings a wealth of previously unpublished visual material to light and provides a fresh perspective on a movement of central and enduring importance to graphic design history and practice.

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

Author Bio

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.