The New Typography | MoMA

I had the chance to check out The New Typography at MoMA, NY last weekend, and while I was slightly disappointed with the breadth of work shown, it was still impressive to see these pieces in-person. Viewing works online, or in books is no substitute for the first-hand experience of scale, texture, paper, ink, and history that you absorb when you interact with something tangible.

The New Typography as described by MoMA:
“In the 1920s and 1930s, the so-called New Typography movement brought graphics and information design to the forefront of the artistic avant-garde in Central Europe. Rejecting traditional arrangement of type in symmetrical columns, modernist designers organized the printed page or poster as a blank field in which blocks of type and illustration (frequently photomontage) could be arranged in harmonious, strikingly asymmetrical compositions. Taking his lead from currents in Soviet Russia and at the Weimar Bauhaus, the designer Jan Tschichold codified the movement with accessible guidelines in his landmark book Die Neue Typographie. (1928).” (link via Oliver Tomas)

Here is a quick video walk-through I was able to grab while I was there:

Some — admittedly terrible — photos (flash photography isn’t allowed):