The scripts of the painter – on the history & forms of German lettering

Beyond books, the public arena has its very own history of script, which has unfortunately become forgotten. In the course of the 19^th century, the non-blackletter, Latin scripts established themselves as the preferred typefaces for commercial use. As part of this process, “block letters” were developed – a sans-serif script that came out of the spirit of construction that still dominates in Germany today. When hand-writing was rediscovered around 1900, this heralded the beginning of an unprecedented period in which the art of writing movement blossomed and touched all branches from typography to type painting. The lecture takes a look at Fritz Görgel’s research work for the book »Karbid, Berlin – Von Schriftmalerei zu Schriftgestaltung« (tr. Carbide Berlin – from type painting to type design) which is published by Ypsilon Éditeur.