Gothic Vs Modern: Letterforms and Graphic Design in Weimar Germany
Gothic Vs Modern: Letterforms and Graphic Design in Weimar Germany
Location
Date
Description
Gothic Vs Modern: Letterforms and Graphic Design in Weimar Germany
With Paul Stirton
Date: Tuesday 24 February 2026
Location: St Bride Foundation
Doors: 6.30pm
Talk starts: 7pm
Talk ends: 8.30pm
Tickets: £14, £16
Please note: Ticket sales end at 4pm on the day of the talk. If available, tickets purchased in-person on the door will cost £16 per person. Please do call or email us to check if an event has any tickets left as you may not be admitted if we have sold out.
Accessibility: Please note that this talk is being held in The Passmore Edwards Room and is only accessible via a staircase. If you have any queries, please call or email us at events@sbf.org.uk before booking.
In 1922, the young designer Jan Tschichold travelled to Offenbach to meet Rudolf Koch, the presiding genius of German “Schriftkunst” (lettering art) and designer of the finest Gothic typefaces. This was a key moment, revealing two competing views of letterforms in German culture, contrasting historicism with modernism, nationalism with universality, and expressionism as opposed to the machine aesthetic of the Constructivists. In the event, Tschichold turned away from Koch, looking instead to El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, and László Moholy-Nagy, pioneers of the New Typography. In this talk, Paul Stirton will explore these debates of the 1920s and beyond, tracing the development of two opposing views of modernity in German culture.
Paul Stirton is Emeritus Professor of Modern European Design History at Bard Graduate Center and editor of West 86th, a Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture (University of Chicago Press). He is the author of many books and exhibition catalogues, including: Burne-Jones and William Morris: Designs for the Aeneid and the Kelmscott Chaucer (Fitzwilliam Museum, 1996), “Is Mr. Ruskin Living Too Long?” Selected Writings of E. W. Godwin on Victorian Architecture, Design and Culture (White Cockade, 2005) with Juliet Kinchin, Jan Tschichold and the New Typography (Yale University Press, 2019) and NKF: Piet Zwart's Avant-Garde Catalog for Standard Cables, 1927-1928 (Letterform Archive, 2024).
Organiser
Established in 1891 with a clear social and cultural purpose, St Bride Foundation is one of London’s hidden gems.
Housed in a beautiful Grade II listed Victorian building, St Bride Foundation was originally set up to serve the burgeoning print and publishing trade of nearby Fleet Street, and is now finding a new contemporary audience of designers, printmakers and typographers who come to enjoy a regular programme of design events and workshops.
Many thousands of books, printing-related periodicals and physical objects are at the heart of St Bride Library. Volumes on the history of printing, typography, newspaper design and paper-making jostle for space alongside one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of type specimens. The printed, written, carved and cast word may be found at St Bride in its myriad forms. Architectural lettering and examples of applied typography in many media, together with substantial collections of steel punches and casting matrices for metal types are also held in this eclectic collection. The Reading Room is open to visitors twice a month and on other days by appointment. Although we operate on a cost-neutral basis, it is necessary to charge for some of our services. Details are available by emailing the library team at library@sbf.org.uk.
St Bride retains many of its original features, including the baths, laundry, printing rooms and library. As part of the Foundation’s original mission to provide for the community, many of the building’s unique and characterful spaces are available to hire whether for meetings, weddings or classes.
St Bride also houses the popular Bridewell Theatre, and Bridewell Bar (once the laundry), and hosts a year-round programme of plays, comedy, music and exhibitions.
With some 65,000 visitors a year St Bride Foundation is a major London hub for the creative arts in London. We look forward to welcoming you soon.
Venue
St Bride Foundation, 14 Bride Ln, EC4Y 8EQ London
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