The New Typography

Ricardo Valentim

Published to accompany a 2017 solo exhibition by Ricardo Valentim. The show was comprised of a series of lithographic plates, three sculptures, and this limited-edition multiple.

Jan Tschichold was a typographer, designer, and teacher, who in 1928 published the revolutionary text, Die neue Typographie (The New Typography), that has long been recognized as the definitive treatise on the graphic design of the machine age. As a manifesto on Modernist design, the book condemned all typefaces except sans-serif, promoted standardized paper sizes, and proposed using different sizes and weights of type in order to most efficiently enable readability. Tschichold eventually acknowledged how rigid some of the ideas in Die neue Typographie were, and from the ’30s onward, he returned to Classicism in print design. He even designed typefaces with serifs, such as Sabon, which he created in the ’60s.

Valentim’s The New Typography demonstrates how Sabon would look in various sizes and weights on different papers. Traditionally, designers used specimens to determine the legibility of typefaces in different contexts. The New Typography challenges the conventional form of type specimens through the production of a different specimen format, which expands standard compositional layouts and offers diverse modes for engaging with them.

Out of print

PPP Editions, 2012

Trade edition of 400 copies. 40 printed A4 sheets in various thickness and texture, laid in a printed folder.

Limited edition of 90 copies: signed, numbered. Printed bellyband over folder, housed in a box.

Deluxe edition of 10 copies: signed, numbered. Printed bellyband over folder, housed in a box. Includes a signed, unique proof.

︎︎︎ Exhibition