In an article published in DigitalArt, Róbert Kravjánszki refers to the German typographer Hermann Zapf , who died in 2015, as "The king of 20th century typography", and he is undeniably right.
Zapf's prolific career left a legacy of amazing type families that are still used by graphic designers today.
I remember how impressed I was with the fonts he designed when I first encountered them. It was then that I realised how much engineering went into designing a carefully planned font or even a whole family of fonts.
What is typography?
The word typography denotes the design of letters, the shaping of textual communication, the arrangement of text and image together, but the design of letters, letter cutting, printing, and printing reproduction itself was also referred to by this collective name. A professional quotation on typography is that 'typography works well when it is almost invisible', because it does not interfere with the reading and interpretation of the text. In turn, the designers themselves are undeservedly left in the background, in the shadows of obscurity.
The field of typography is an integral part of my work as an advertising graphic designer and fills a significant part of my life. As I have always had a passion for this approach to graphic design, I started my career by designing my own typefaces, and it was then that I thought of creating something in lettering. Something lasting. My first work, for example, which was exhibited as TYPOLAMP. :)
UPDATE: This creation also won an international award in the Artzept 2021 design competition 2022, organised by Zepter International. Read more about it here.
So that's how I started out in typography at the beginning of my artistic career, around 2008. Later on I created the award-winning TGT tribute project, The Great Typographers portrait series, to commemorate famous type designers.
The portrait series also included a portrait of Hermann Zapf, who was still alive at the time. What makes the series so interesting is that the portraits of the typographers are composed of the letters they designed.
The typeface designer, who lived to be 96, had many publications and many more beautifully designed, stylish typefaces to his name, but one of the most beautiful of these is a calligraphic typeface he created in 1944, when he was working as a cartographer during the war, which was later realized as Zapfino. I suppose the choice of name suggests that this was one of his favourite works, which, thanks to the digitalisation of the time, was finally produced in 1998 as a computer-generated 'font'. So it was not by chance that I chose this font when I tried to create a portrait of the master.
An interesting experience while designing the posters was that each artist, while designing their most characteristic or later famous typeface, randomly (or not) created unique character shapes that later on were perfectly integrated as graphic elements in their portraits. This may be evidence, as I have seen elsewhere in the history of art and elsewhere, that the artist is 'working' a little bit of himself into the work he is creating. I think this may also correspond to that certain spirit of enthusiasm or enthusiasm (a state of flow, if you like) which Márai or Goethe said was essential to the creation of a masterpiece.
It was my first series of posters, which was published in a limited numbered edition by Printa Gallery and after that it brought me many successes and recognition.
The series was later exhibited in many places, such as the National Széchényi Library, the Munkácsy Mihály Museum in Békéscsaba, the House of Hungarian Artists, the National Dance Theatre Gallery at the 18th National Biennale of Graphic Design, TypoSzalon's festive selection, the Three to the Common Space and Typochondria 20 TypoSzalon at the FUGA Budapest Architecture Centre, to name but a few. It has won a design award abroad and has been the subject of many Hungarian and international publications in print and online. I am proud of these achievements to this day.
I owe my own successes in part to The Great Typographers and their enthusiastic work. That is why I am so sad today. Because at one point during the first Typographers exhibitions, I was talking to a kind visitor about how important it was to let Hermann, who was still alive at the time, know how much I appreciated his work. I suppose many people in my profession do, but I also commemorated him prematurely as a member of the poster series. I would have liked to send him a copy of the poster, but my investigation and correspondence to find out his address on the subject got bogged down and I overlooked it in the many daily matters. I now regret this very much, as the unknown lady was able to report a similar incident involving her.
I have organised prize draws so that fans of the TGT brand can claim a copy of the brand, whether in the form of a bag, a T-shirt or a poster. Yet, in recent years, I've turned away from the project a little, and I've become interested in a different subject and a new challenge. That's why I'd like to revive the idea of making typographic portraits, so that the fame of our great predecessors can be spread to as many people as possible. I hope that this series will be a fitting tribute to them, and that those unfamiliar with the profession will not only be able to choose a digital version of a typeface from a drop-down list in a program, but hopefully also to reflect on the humble work of the Great Typographers.
Thank you master!
Rest in peace.
You can order the 50x70cm screen-printed limited edition posters from ETSY if you like typo portraits and want to support my efforts to continue the series. There are still a few ideas in the planning stage that I hope to finish soon.
If you have specific suggestions for additional font designers, I welcome your ideas. Let me know in the comments who and why you suggest to be featured in the series and which fonts are most typical for that artist!
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