the roots and intertwining movements that led to what we call today the Modern Movement.

The great breakthrough period a stretch of almost twenty years, that separates modern typography from earlier typographics, started with the publication of the Futurist manifesto in 1909 and peaked in the late twenties.Futurism was a violent reaction by artists and writers against the status quo which symbolised failure to make life worth living.

The advent of photography, economic and social forces and new philosophical attitudes also contributed to the development of new attitudes toward communication design. The Futurists ignored the constraints of metal typography and letterpress printing. Horizontalism was out, Type at any angle was in. The big thing in Futurist design was shock and contrast.

Another major departure from straight realistic thinking was the development in the early 1900's of Cubism. This art represented objects (that weren't totally abstract) in a new way, Still life was now envisioned as a compromise of shape and shifting volumes of planes. This was a strong departure from the 400 year old Renaissance tradition. Unlike Impressionism, Pos

Tshichold had seen the pre-war typography attempt to create new type faces and felt that emphasis should be focused on layout and design.

Tschichold in his early years opposed many elements of typography and devised new rules in which he published in over fifty books. These rules were applied by many designers throughout the civilised world. Commenting on Tchicholds impact years later , Herbert Spencer wrote, " Asymmetry and Contrast provide the basis of Modern typography". So I believe we can safely say that almost every aspect that Jan Tchichold took in the early years of modernism were in fact ideals that can be perceived as being part of the modern movement.Tcshichold found that sans-serif type faces were the best all-purpose typeface's for his time. Not only were they simple but some were full family designs with four roman weights and corresponding italics. Tschichold was the voice and conscience of the new typography. His work combined vitality as much as order. Tschichold in the 1930's compared the new typography with the old as being clarity in the new typography in contrast to beauty in the old. He said that the new typography differs from the old in that it tries to develop its form from function of the text. Looking at the text of the 1930's you will find that in most cases a different rythem than the dual symmetry that had been used up until this period. Now the rythem of asymmetry, the rythemical expression of functional design was predominant. This is why Jan Tschicholds awareness brought so much to other modernists in his books.

In his later day thinking Tschichold believed he had been juvenile in his thinking in the 1920's. The modernist approach to using one typeface was wrong and perhaps more typeface's that represent other emotions should have been developed. The rules and theories have helped many designers in layout and rational thinking. But the use of one typeface (Sans-serif) didn't make good typography. Good typography has to be legible and, as such the result of intelligent planning.

It was the influence of these modern movements that brings us to Jan Tschichold. Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1902, he later went on to become a lecturer at the Leipzig Academy of Book Design (1923-1933).

He wrote

Tschichold advocated as had the

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)