Kurt Weidemann lives in Stuttgart, Germany, and is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts there. He is director of European Affairs for the international Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA).

In a talk before the Type Directors Club of New York, the German typographer Kurt Weidemann recited a few bald facts which should open the eyes of many of the younger artist-designers in this country, but probably will not. Many of his listeners most likely attended his lecture because they wished to be let in on the latest dramatic and galvanic trends from Germany and the rest of Europe.

They were most certainly disappointed because Mr. Weidemann just said, “I do not intend to come out with any sensational news or findings, not because I do not like to do so but because there simply are no new or sensational findings in this field. Indeed, the sensational fact might be that there are no sensations on either side of the Atlantic. There is the very old belief that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence; in Germany we are currently engaged in discovering the American rediscovery of the Cooper Black type.

The typographic excesses of the last decade all seem to have quietly stolen away, without leaving much impression of lasting significance, Mr. Weidemann said. Gone is the piggy-back headline, the cute stunts with type to express an idea, which in themselves were bright and ingratiating in the hands of a Lubalin, but terribly jaded when the second-hand experts got around to it.

The momentary trends of dragging out the Jazz Age types of the 20’s, such as Cooper Black, Futura Display, and Broadway, and the further reach backwards to the caricatures of roman letters as expressed by the Victorians, seem to have slowed down, and everybody is beginning to look around to see what is next.

Mr. Weidemann touched upon this aspect of contemporary design when he said, “After all, neither the Swiss, nor the Bauhaus styles, nor the constructivists were able to bless us, because cold kisses simply cannot kindle hot love . . . Whatever is merely a fad and may have some ephemeral commercial impact is basically of little consequence. Pure craftsmanship and the application of a personal style are no longer as important as the ability to apply them in a reasonable and respectable manner.”

This affable European should be talked into coming back to the United States and conducting a seminar to which most designers who have graduated from art school during the past 20 years should be made to attend. ,

“Three thousand typefaces are no progress,” he remarked, “but a declaration of bankruptcy. In order to communicate a message effectively, 10 typefaces and 10 times 10 ways of typographic arrangement are more than enough. We should not make a Weltanschauung out of questions like centered arrangements versus flush-left arrangements, gothic versus roman typefaces. Problems in type selection and also in typeface design are no longer mere questions of historical or esthetic factors, but also of technical and functional considerations.”

These were some solid statements of fact, and it was good to have them uttered by a first-class designer with sufficient prestige to make his words meaningful to most of his audience.

This article first appeared in the August 1965 issue of The Inland Printer/American Lithographer. Although uncredited, it is most likely written by Alexander S. Lawson.