"Schablonenschrift" in the Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement published an image without attribution of Josef Albers'sSchablonenschrift in the May 2, 2018, article "Thin as a bubble: Why typefaces can be more beautiful—and interesting—than you might think."
The Times Literary Supplement published an image without attribution of Josef Albers'sSchablonenschrift in the May 2, 2018, article "Thin as a bubble: Why typefaces can be more beautiful—and interesting—than you might think." Nicholas Fox Weber's letter to the editor was published on May 18, 2018.
Sir,—In the issue of March 2 (p3), a unique and stunning typeface design was reproduced without identification. It is Josef Albers's 1926 Schablonenschrift. Albers, who was then at the Bauhaus as a teacher, was fascinated by typography. He created this entire alphabet—the one shown in the TLS—with each letter composed of circles or squares or parts thereof, a deliberately minimal vocabulary of form. The version of his lettering that is shown was initially reproduced in the magazine Offset: Buch und Werbekunst, No. 7, in the same year that he created it. But when I knew Josef in the 1970s, he was still fine-tuning the lettering, insisting he had never got the "z" right. Its clarity was essential to him, as was its rhythm. At the age of eight-five, he finally achieved a "z" that satisfied him.
—Nicholas Fox Weber, Executive Director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
