wiedler.ch

book (design) story #80

georg schmidt, werner schmalenbach, peter bächlin:
der film – wirtschaftlich, gesellschaftlich, künstlerisch

holbein verlag, basel, 1947
printer: buchdruckerei karl werner, basel
size: 30 x 21 cm
designer: hermann eidenbenz

hermann eidenbenz (1902-1993) is maybe most famous for his design of bank notes for west-germany and switzerland in the 1950s. this book about film is a nice example of the then emerging swiss "new new typography".

the design of the front cover is almost programmatic: asymmetric layout, sans-serif type and normed page size (din a4) are all features propagated by jan tschichold in his influential 1928 book "die neue typographie" (see story 29). typically "swiss" is the multi-column, grid-like structure.

one of the book's authors, basel museum man georg schmidt (1896-1965) was an important promoter of modern art in switzerland. he also edited the sophie taeuber book (story 25), published by the same company a year later.

the film-like visual direction – especially the series of photos describing zoom effects (below) – is quite similar to a büchergilde book designed by richard paul lohse the year after (see story 38).

the book ends with these poem-like lines:

the aim

film production
as production for the profit of the producer (profit production)
chains the film as an art

film production
as production for the need of the active film-goer (need production)
makes the film-goer the master of production
the producer the servant of the film-goer

frees the film as an art!

the translation above is from the english edition published by the london-based falcon press in 1948. the layout was basically the same, however with one significant difference: ...

... the typeface was changed ...

... from the "swiss-modernist" sans-serif ...

... to a more "english-conservative" roman!