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book (design) story #300

karl gerstner:
kompendium für alphabeten

verlag arthur niggli ag, teufen, 1972
printer: r. weber ag, heiden
size: 15 x 16 cm
designer: karl gerstner

in 1972 karl gerstner (1930-2017) published this book which was also translated into english with the title "compendium for literates: a system of writing".

this small, square book is a kind of sequel to his earlier "programme entwerfen" ("designing programmes"): there gerstner had explained why he preferred the old, rough, "no designer" akzidenz-grotesk typeface over smooth "designer sans-serifs" such as futura, gill, univers, etc. and he announced that he was adapting and extending the akzidenz-grotesk family for the berthold "diatype" phototypesetter. the 1972 "kompendium für alphabeten" was set on diatype using that typeface which was called "gerstner programm".

gerstner systematically explores what you can do with type.

below examples of different typeface styles: the art nouveau style "charleston" (which was based on a 1905 typeface called "radium"); then the art deco "bifur", designed by a. m. cassandre; about the "grotesk" (sans-serif) gerstner remarks: "today sans-serif is still the most emancipated of all typefaces: it radically breaks with all associations to handwriting" (my translation).

the book format is very unusual: it is actually bound in the style of a japanese pouch book, and has to be turned 90° clockwise to read.

there is special emphasis on the effects that phototypesetting made possible. the layout is basically asymmetric, but the illustrations/examples are centered.

very interesting is the chapter where gerstner speculates about the future of the book: he envisions a sort of huge electonic library where all the knowledge of the world is stored online and can be accessed by a television set attached to a phone line ... this was 1972. only two decades later that vision became reality: the www started to take off and changed – well, not everything, but quite a lot.