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book (design) story #77

dmitrij tschetwerikov:
die rebellion des ingenieurs karinski

der bücherkreis, berlin, 1931
printer: fränkische verlagsanstalt & buchdruckerei gmbh, nürn
size: 19 x 13 cm
designer: jan tschichold

this novel by boris dmitrievich chetverikov (1896-1981) is about the changed relationships between the sexes in post-revolutionary russia, especially among moscow's political functionaries.

this book is from the period when jan tschichold (1902-1974) designed all books for the bücherkreis, a socialist book club. it seems to be one of the club's first books issued with a dust jacket – its spine still shows the old bücherkreis logo (see story 70 for a later jacket with the new logo).

with its simple, rectangular colour shapes (bright red and white) and its sober typography (author's name and title set asymmetrically in akzidenz-grotesk), this jacket proofs how much the later swiss "new new typography" owes to tschichold's early work – as we will see in the next few book stories.

in the early 1930s, tschichold liked a "good" mix of typefaces on a page. he also often used different typefaces for the jacket, and the cover/title page (like here) – however always in an asymmetric arrangement.

line boxes around titles, names, etc. were another favourite of his (see stories 6, 68) – this book features boxed chapter numbers.