Typographical Facts – El Lissitzky

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Tocommunicateyourthoughtsinwritingyouonly
needtoformcertaincombinationsfromthese
signsandchainthemtogethercontinuously. But – NO.

You see here that a structure of thought cannot be mechanically reeled off by combining the 26 letters. Language is more than merely an acoustic wave motion and merely a means of transmitting thoughts. Thus typography too is more than merely an optical wave motion for the same purpose. From the passive, fused, unarticulated body of writing one proceeds to the active, articulated one. The gesture of living speech is recorded, e.g.: the Hammurabi tablets and the printed matter of modern election propaganda.

You have divided the day into 24 hours. There is no longer an hour left for exuberant emotional effusions. The structure of conversation becomes ever more concise. The gesture sharply stamped. Likewise typography. E.g.: brochures, advertising matter and modern novels.

From your first day onward you are accompanied by printed paper and your eye is splendidly trained to find its way quickly, precisely, without error in this specific field. You cast your glances into these forests with the same certainty as the Australian throws his boomerang. E.g.: the printed sheet of a large daily newspaper.

You demand clear structures for your eyes. These can only be composed of unambiguous elements. The elements of the letters are:

the horizontal –
the vertical |
the diagonal /
the curve C

These are the basic directions of the plane. The composition takes place in horizontal and vertical direction. These two produce the right (unambiguous) angle. It can be placed in the direction of the boundaries of the plane, then it acts dynamically (movement). These are the axioms of typography, e.g.: this page. You are already overcoming the prejudice that only letterpress is pure typography. Letterpress belongs to the past. The future – to intaglio printing and all photomechanical processes. In this way the former fresco painting is replaced by the new typography, e.g.: advertising columns and poster walls.

You have noticed that in an organic structure all facets exhibit the same structural unit. Modern typography is engaged in developing its structural unit. E.g.: the paper (art paper), the type (absence of ornament), the color (the new spectrally clear products).

You can see how, where new fields open up to intellectual and linguistic structures, organically new typographical formations arise. These are: modern advertising and modern poetry. E.g.: some pages of American and European magazine and trade journals. The international publications of the Dada movement.

You should demand of the writer that he truly sets his writing. For his thoughts come to you through the eye and not through the ear. Therefore typographic plasticity through its optics must accomplish what the voice and the gesture of the speaker create for his thoughts.