Jan Tschichold famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Art #Perfect #Design
The book designer strives for perfection; yet every perfect thing lives somewhere in the neighborhood of dullness and is frequently mistaken for it by the insensitive.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Book #Perfect #Designer
White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.
-- Jan Tschichold

#White #Space #Elements
Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of funtional design. In addition to being more logical, asymmetry has the advantage that its complete appearance is far more optically effective than symmetry.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Expression #Design #Asymmetry
The works of 'abstract' art are subtle creations of order out of simple contrasting elements.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Art #Simple #Order
Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of functional design.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Expression #Design #Asymmetry
My errors were more fertile than I ever imagined.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Errors
We cannot alter the essential shape of a single letter without at the same time destroying the familiar printed face of our language, and thereby rendering it useless.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Essentials #Useless #Shapes
The sanserif only seems to be the simpler script. It is a form that was violently reduced for little children. For adults it is more difficult to read than serifed roman type, whose serifs were never meant to be ornamental.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Children #Adults #Littles
Type production has gone mad, with its senseless outpouring of new types... only in degenerate times can personality (opposed to the nameless masses) become the aim of human development.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Mad #Design #Personality
Perfect typography is more a science than an art.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Art #Perfect #Design
Standardization, instead of individualization. Cheap books, instead of private press editions. Active literature, instead of passive leather bindings.
-- Jan Tschichold

#Book #Design #Literature

You may also like:

Adrian Frutiger
Typeface Creator
Armin Hofmann
Graphic Designer
Beatrice Warde
Journalist
David Carson
Graphic Designer
El Lissitzky
Artist
Emil Ruder
Graphic Designer
Eric Gill
Typeface Creator
Erik Spiekermann
Graphic Designer
Herbert Bayer
Graphic Designer
Josef Muller-Brockmann
Graphic Designer
Kurt Schwitters
Artist
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Painter
Lester Beall
Graphic Designer
Max Bill
Architect
Neville Brody
Graphic Designer
Paul Rand
Graphic Designer
Piet Zwart
Photographer
Robert Bringhurst
Poet
Stanley Morison
Type designer
Wolfgang Weingart
Graphic Designer