Rudolf Koch
Rudolf Koch | |
---|---|
Born | (1876-11-20)November 20, 1876 |
Died | April 9, 1934(1934-04-09) (aged 57) |
Occupation(s) | typeface designer, professor |
Known for | Neuland, Kabel |
Movement | Offenbach School |
Rudolf Koch (20 November 1876 – 9 April 1934) was a German type designer, professor, and a master of lettering, calligraphy, typography and illustration. Commonly known for his typefaces created for the Klingspor Type Foundry, his most widely used typefaces include Neuland and Kabel.
Overview
Koch spent his teenage years working in Hanau as an apprentice in a metal goods workshop, whilst also attending art school, where he learned to draw, and soon after went to the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg. Between 1897 and 1906 he worked for various businesses in the book trade in Leipzig, illustrating and designing book covers in the Art Nouveau style that was popular at the time.[1] In 1906 Koch began working for the Rudhard Type foundry in Offenbach, later known as the Klingspor Type foundry. Other notable designers who worked for the foundry include Otto Eckmann and Peter Behrens.[2]
Koch was deeply spiritual and a devout Lutheran, spending much of his time working on religious publications and manuscripts, of which he completed nearly a hundred in his lifetime. Koch viewed the alphabet as humanity's ultimate achievement.[3] He died prematurely of a heart attack in 1934, aged 57.
Career and influences
Koch greatly admired William Morris. Speaking at a meeting in London, he expressed his disbelief that Morris was not of German descent: "I feel such a closeness to him that I always have the feeling that he cannot be an Englishman, he must be a German."[4]
The teachings of Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement are evident in Koch's use of hand-lettering and wood-cutting techniques. At the same time, his book illustrations are evocative of Art Nouveau. Koch prized craftsmanship in his type design and printing methods, a principle deeply rooted in the Arts and Crafts Movement.[5] Yet Koch was working in a period of rapid development in print technology, which saw the invention of the Linotype machine in 1886, the Monotype System in 1887, and the offset press in 1907, all of which were antithetical to his artisanal ethos.
Koch lectured at the Arts and Crafts School in Offenbach. In 1918, after World War I, he opened a workshop training students in typography, calligraphy, wood-cutting, and other crafts.[6] Best known for his calligraphic talent[7] he built upon the calligraphic tradition by creating an original, simple expression from his materials.[6]
Many of Koch's blackletter typefaces, such as Kochschrift and Willhelm Klingspor Gotisch, were greatly influenced by hand-written manuscripts and Gothic letterforms,[8][9] a style that originated in Germany. Known also for his nationalistic ideology, he wrote in Der Deutsche, "Even as a boy I wanted to become a proper real German. I hated anything that was foreign, and even as I was growing up I felt this was a sign of true loyalty."[10]
Koch frequently defended Germanic blackletter script in the journals and publications he contributed to. He also held exhibitions with his group Offenbach Schreiber, which promoted hand lettering and calligraphy, and in these, he expressed the revival of traditional lettering. Koch worked closely with bookbinder Ignatz Wiemeler, and together they created the "Offenbach Typography Style" of bookbindings.[11][12]
Koch's dedication to Gothic script may have limited his recognition in English-speaking countries.[13] His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.[14]
Koch wrote a book containing 493 old-world symbols, monograms, and runes entitled The Book of Signs (reprinted in 1955, in the Dover Pictorial Archive Series). Hermann Zapf was a huge admirer of Koch, and took great inspiration from his work after acquiring a copy of his book Das Schreiben als Kunstfertigkeit (Writing as a Skill).[15]
Typefaces
Koch's first non-blackletter typeface was the delicate roman Koch-Antiqua, a display face with a low x-height.[16] Its oblique features inline capitals in the larger sizes, an idea inspired by the traditions of blackletter capitals.[17]
Koch designed the Neuland typeface in 1923. Taking a more experimental turn, the typeface counterpoints his preferred traditional style with a more contemporary feel. Dr Klingspor called it "unbearably ugly", despite its great commercial success.[18]
Koch introduced his first sans-serif typeface, Kabel, in 1927, which is similar to Paul Renner's Futura,[19] designed the same year. The differences between the two typefaces are most noticeable in Kabel's far-reaching terminal on the 'a' and the 'e', as well as the slanted crossbar and the loop of the 'g'.
Typefaces designed by Koch include:
- Claudius (1931–1934)
- Deutsche Anzeigenschrift (1923–1924)
- Deutsche Schrift (1908–1921)
- Deutsche Zierschrift (1921)
- Grotesk-Initialen (1933)
- Holla (1932)
- Jessen (1924–1930)
- Kabel (1927–1929)
- Koch Antiqua / Locarno (1922), sold by Continental Type in the United States as Eve
- Koch Current (1933)
- Marathon (1930–1938)
- Maximilian Antiqua (1913–17)
- Neufraktur (1933–1934)
- Neuland (1922–1923)
- Offenbach (1928)
- Prisma (1931)
- Wallau (1925–1934)
- Wilhelm Klingspor-Schrift (1920–1926)
- Zeppelin / Kabel Inline (1929)
Notable publications
Some of Koch's most well known works include:
- Das Schreiben als Kunstfertigkeit [Writing As A Skill]. Leipzig, Germany: Verlag des Deutschen Buchgewerbe-Verein. 1921.
- Das ABC-Büchlein (The Little ABC Book)
- Das Blumenbuch (The Flower Book)
- Das Zeichenbuch (The Book of Signs)[20]
- Klassiche Schriften (Classic Lettering)
References
- ^ Masini, Lara-Vinca (1984). Art Nouveau. London, UK: Thames and Hudson. p. 172. ISBN 0-500-23395-0.
- ^ Fabian, Nicholas. "Rudolf Koch. Calligrapher, Type Designer, Punch Cutter, teacher". Type Design, Typography & Graphic Images. Archived from the original on December 10, 2000. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ Purvis, Alston W. (2013). Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-8365-4480-1.
- ^ Cinamon, Gerald (2000). Rudolf Koch. Letterer, Type Designer, teacher (1st ed.). London, UK: The British Library. p. 136. ISBN 0-7123-4659-7.
- ^ Purvis, Alston W. (2003). Graphic Design 20th Century. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: BIS Publishers. p. 13. ISBN 9789063690519.
- ^ a b Meggs, Philips B. (2006). Meggs' History of Graphic Design (4th ed.). New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 173. ISBN 0-471-69902-0.
- ^ Raizmann, David (2010). History of Modern Design (2nd ed.). Laurence King Publishing Ltd. p. 208. ISBN 978-0131842663.
- ^ Purvis, Alston W. (2013). Type. A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles vol.2. Cologne, Germany: TASCHEN. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-8365-4480-1.
- ^ Meggs, Philip B. (2006). Meggs' History of Graphic Design (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 173. ISBN 0-470-16873-0.
- ^ Cinamon, Gerald (2000). Rudolf Koch. Letterer. Type Designer, teacher (1st ed.). London, UK: The British Library. p. 125. ISBN 0-7123-4659-7.
- ^ "Ignatz Wiemeler and his ingenious bindings. A highlight in the collections of the Klingspor Museum Offenbach". Association of European Printing Museums. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
- ^ "Typography and Calligraphy". Klingspor-Museum Offenbach, Museum for Modern International Book Art. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
- ^ Cinamon, Gerald (2000). Rudolf Koch. Letterer, Type Designer, teacher (1st ed.). London, UK: The British Library. p. 30. ISBN 0-7123-4659-7.
- ^ "Rudolf Koch". Olympedia. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
- ^ Meggs, Philip B. (2011). History of Graphic Design. New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-471-69902-6.
- ^ Shaw, Paul (10 February 2011). "Overlooked Typefaces". Print magazine. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
- ^ Tracy, Walter (2003). Letters of Credit. pp. 153–173. ISBN 9781567922400. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ Cinamon, Gerald (2000). Rudolf Koch. Letterer, Type Designer, teacher (1st ed.). London, UK: The British Library. p. 92. ISBN 0-7123-4659-7.
- ^ Raizman, David (2010). History of Modern Design. London, UK: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. p. 208. ISBN 9781856696944.
- ^ Koch, Rudolf (1955). The book of signs: which contains all manner of symbols used from the earliest times to the Middle Ages by primitive peoples and early Christians. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486201627. OCLC 509534. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
collected, drawn and explained by Rudolf Koch ; translated from the German by Vyvyan Holland. An unabridged republication of the English translation first published ... in 1930.
External links
- Font Designer - Rudolf Koch
- Klingspor-Museum Offenbach - Rudolf Koch
- Type Design, Typography & Graphic Images -Rudolf Koch
- v
- t
- e
- 1923 Adam Karrillon and Arnold Mendelssohn
- 1924 Alfred Bock and Paul Thesing
- 1925 Wilhelm Michel and Rudolf Koch
- 1926 Christian Heinrich Kleukens and Wilhelm Petersen
- 1927 Kasimir Edschmid and Johannes Bischoff
- 1928 Richard Hoelscher and Well Habicht
- 1929 Carl Zuckmayer and Adam Antes
- 1930 Nikolaus Schwarzkopf and Johannes Lippmann
- 1931 Alexander Posch and Hans Simon
- 1932 Albert H. Rausch and Adolf Bode
- 1933–1944 not given
- 1945 Hans Schiebelhuth
- 1946 Fritz Usinger
- 1947 Anna Seghers
- 1948 Hermann Heiss
- 1949 Carl Gunschmann
- 1950 Elisabeth Langgässer
- 1951 Gottfried Benn
- 1952 not given
- 1953 Ernst Kreuder
- 1954 Martin Kessel
- 1955 Marie Luise Kaschnitz
- 1956 Karl Krolow
- 1957 Erich Kästner
- 1958 Max Frisch
- 1959 Günter Eich
- 1960 Paul Celan
- 1961 Hans Erich Nossack
- 1962 Wolfgang Koeppen
- 1963 Hans Magnus Enzensberger
- 1964 Ingeborg Bachmann
- 1965 Günter Grass
- 1966 Wolfgang Hildesheimer
- 1967 Heinrich Böll
- 1968 Golo Mann
- 1969 Helmut Heißenbüttel
- 1970 Thomas Bernhard
- 1971 Uwe Johnson
- 1972 Elias Canetti
- 1973 Peter Handke
- 1974 Hermann Kesten
- 1975 Manès Sperber
- 1976 Heinz Piontek
- 1977 Reiner Kunze
- 1978 Hermann Lenz
- 1979 Ernst Meister
- 1980 Christa Wolf
- 1981 Martin Walser
- 1982 Peter Weiss
- 1983 Wolfdietrich Schnurre
- 1984 Ernst Jandl
- 1985 Heiner Müller
- 1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt
- 1987 Erich Fried
- 1988 Albert Drach
- 1989 Botho Strauß
- 1990 Tankred Dorst
- 1991 Wolf Biermann
- 1992 George Tabori
- 1993 Peter Rühmkorf
- 1994 Adolf Muschg
- 1995 Durs Grünbein
- 1996 Sarah Kirsch
- 1997 H. C. Artmann
- 1998 Elfriede Jelinek
- 1999 Arnold Stadler
- 2000 Volker Braun
- 2001 Friederike Mayröcker
- 2002 Wolfgang Hilbig
- 2003 Alexander Kluge
- 2004 Wilhelm Genazino
- 2005 Brigitte Kronauer
- 2006 Oskar Pastior
- 2007 Martin Mosebach
- 2008 Josef Winkler
- 2009 Walter Kappacher
- 2010 Reinhard Jirgl
- 2011 Friedrich Christian Delius
- 2012 Felicitas Hoppe
- 2013 Sibylle Lewitscharoff
- 2014 Jürgen Becker
- 2015 Rainald Goetz
- 2016 Marcel Beyer
- 2017 Jan Wagner
- 2018 Terézia Mora
- 2019 Lukas Bärfuss
- 2020 Elke Erb
- 2021 Clemens J. Setz
- 2022 Emine Sevgi Özdamar
- 2023: Lutz Seiler