Jan Tschichold Quotes

• White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.

  Jan Tschichold

  White, Space, Design

  165 Copy quote

• Perfect typography is more a science than an art.

  Jan Tschichold

  Art, Perfect, Design

  Jan Tschichold, Robert Bringhurst, Hajo Hadeler (1991). “The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design”, Hartley & Marks Publishers

  107 Copy quote

• The aim of every typographic work - the delivery of a message in the shortest, most efficient manner.

  Jan Tschichold

  Messages, Aim, Delivery

  145 Copy quote

• 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

  Jan Tschichold (1995). “The new typography: a handbook for modern designers”, Univ of California Pr

  130 Copy quote

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

  Jan Tschichold

  Art, Perfect, Design

  134 Copy quote

• My errors were more fertile than I ever imagined.

  Jan Tschichold

  Errors, Fertile

  Jan Tschichold, Günter Bose, Erich Brinkmann (1991). “Schriften: 1925-1974 : Ausgabe in zwei Bänden”

  70 Copy quote

• Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of functional design.

  Jan Tschichold

  Expression, Design, Asymmetry

  Jan Tschichold (1995). “The new typography: a handbook for modern designers”, Univ of California Pr

  69 Copy quote

• Readers want what is important to be clearly laid out; they will not read what is too troublesome.

  Jan Tschichold

  Important, Want, Reader

  79 Copy quote

• 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

  Jan Tschichold, Robert Bringhurst, Hajo Hadeler (1991). “The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design”, Hartley & Marks Publishers

  66 Copy quote

• The works of 'abstract' art are subtle creations of order out of simple contrasting elements.

  Jan Tschichold

  Art, Simple, Order

  Jan Tschichold (1967). “Asymmetric Typography”, New York : Reinhold Publishing Corporation

  65 Copy quote

• 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

  Jan Tschichold, Robert Bringhurst, Hajo Hadeler (1991). “The form of the book: essays on the morality of good design”, Hartley & Marks Publishers

  48 Copy quote

• 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

  47 Copy quote

• Standardization, instead of individualization. Cheap books, instead of private press editions. Active literature, instead of passive leather bindings.

  Jan Tschichold

  Book, Design, Literature

  48 Copy quote

• 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

  Jan Tschichold (1995). “The new typography: a handbook for modern designers”, Univ of California Pr

  41 Copy quote

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