Jan Tschichold Quotes

White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.

The aim of every typographic work - the delivery of a message in the shortest, most efficient manner.

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.

Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of funtional design. In addition to being more logical, asymmetry has the advantage that its complete appearance is far more optically effective than symmetry.

Perfect typography is more a science than an art.

Readers want what is important to be clearly laid out; they will not read what is too troublesome.

My errors were more fertile than I ever imagined.

Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of functional design.

The works of 'abstract' art are subtle creations of order out of simple contrasting elements.

The book designer strives for perfection; yet every perfect thing lives somewhere in the neighborhood of dullness and is frequently mistaken for it by the insensitive.

Standardization, instead of individualization. Cheap books, instead of private press editions. Active literature, instead of passive leather bindings.

We cannot alter the essential shape of a single letter without at the same time destroying the familiar printed face of our language, and thereby rendering it useless.

Type production has gone mad, with its senseless outpouring of new types... only in degenerate times can personality (opposed to the nameless masses) become the aim of human development.