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book (design) story #490

hans bockwitz, karl franke:
archiv für buchgewerbe und gebrauchsgraphik

verlag des beutschen buchgewerbereins, leipzig, around 1932
size: 32 x 24 cm
designer: karl franke (cover 7/1932), georg salter, imre reiner, max burchartz (inserts)

we have already come across the periodical "archiv für buchgewerbe und gebrauchsgraphik" in story 422 which was a special issue about switzerland. the magazine was published by the association of german printers, and it is a great source for texts and examples of german typography. each issue was printed by different companies on a variety of different papers with covers and inserts featuring designs by different artists. managing editor was hans bockwitz (1884-1954), director of the german book and writing museum in leipzig. here we have a couple of issues from the years 1931-1932. just by looking at the covers we can see that "new typography" was an important issue in those years.

issue 10/1931 includes tipped-in modernist brochures designed by imre reiner (1900-1987), a hungarian-born artist and typographer who had studied in germany and lived in southern switzerland after 1931.

issue 4/1932 covers the "50 most beautiful books of 1931" competition, held for the third time in germany.

this page lists all the reproductions or inserted print samples of the prize-winning books.

for the first time the competition distinguished different categories such as "literature", "technical books" "photo books" etc. we also learn who was in the jury: büchergilde director bruno dressler and artist/illustrator hugo steiner-prag, among others. note the assymetrically placed page numbers.

above spreads from a book designed by jan tschichold, and an article about georg salter with tipped-in dustjacket samples.

there's a whole bunch of loosely inserted samples in the pouch at the back!

issue 7/1932 includes an article about books designed by max burchartz, ...

... with an insert.

its cover was designed by karl franke (1894-1952, see also story 115), ...

... who also contributed an article on "the fight for style and form in typography", set all-lowercase, ...

... with examples.

franke also wrote in issue 9/1932, about teaching typographical design, with examples of student's works.