By Inge Druckrey
196 pages, softcover, $48
Published by The Work of Edward Tufte and Graphics Press
edwardtufte.com

Modern Pioneers: Anna Simons, Edward Johnston, Rudolf von Larisch, F. H. Ehmcke showcases designers and educators active in the early 20th century, focusing not only on their contributions to design through practice and example but also their teaching methods and exercises—sometimes covered in enough detail that they could be the start of lesson plans. The entire book is in full color with US-letter-size pages, and beautifully reproduced work (representing the subjects and their students) takes up as much space as the text.

Title notwithstanding, Johnston is presented primarily as either a fountainhead for others (particularly Simons, who tended to overcredit him) or in terms of rebelling against his ideas (Larisch and Ehmcke), but his contributions have been covered at length elsewhere. With the exception of Ehmcke, I might quibble as to whether the other designers covered are so much typographers as they are letterers. Of course, the two are intimately related, and many of the book’s images show lettering used in places where type is today more common, such as covers and chapter initial drop caps.

An outstanding addition to any design library, Modern Pioneers is the product of two decades of original research, often with primary resources, yielding much that will be found nowhere else in print or not in English. Read it if you are interested in lettering and typography instruction, its history, and how the training of countless later typographers and type designers can be traced to this interconnected web of pioneering German educators and practitioners. —Thomas Phinney ca