Typekit Practice

Modernism meets typography

Philip B. Meggs, in the introduction to Texts on Type (p. x):

Traditionalists such as Frederic Goudy actually believed modern layouts with bold contrasts, thick ruled lines, off-center balance, and elemental sans serif were disconcerting and ugly. Modernists including Douglas C. McMurtrie and Paul Rand were convinced that the stale and dated symmetrical placement of old-style type was an outmoded expression inappropriate to the modern technological age.

The modernist art movement had a direct influence on the world of typography in the early twentieth century, dividing typographers between traditionalist and modernist approaches with regard to the theoretical goal they believed typography should serve for communication.