Here is last year’s Christmas gift to myself: a hefty catalog of long-forgotten typefaces by a famed German type foundry, which I managed to snag on eBay. More than a mere listing of available fonts, the book aims to show the foundry’s wares in the best possible light, putting the fonts through their paces in a variety of attractive use examples, artful layouts, and eye-popping arrangements. There even is a mock newspaper tipped into the book.
What attracted me to this book was not the selection of Fraktur typefaces you’d expect to see from a German type foundry of the time, but the wealth of Art Nouveau typefaces displayed in the middle section. If all goes well, several of these will be featured in my next design kit!
Read on to see a quick tour through the book, in 80 pictures.
