Planegg

2 —

Planegg

Research report

7 “Mr. Behrens’ Type”

10 Mr. Behrens and the Jugendstil

12 Fraktur vs. Antiqua

14 Behrens-Style

16 Notes and References

a revival by col in m. ford

fig. 1—Portrait of Peter Behrens

3

When I show my revival typeface, which I am dubbing Planegg, to most people, they don’t know what to make of it. They tend to think it seems vaguely “old”, occupying a typographic no-man’s land that they have been taken to only on rare oc-casions. Only Jan Willem was not taken aback by my attempts to play Dr. Frankenstein while reviv-ing a typeface that most agree should have stayed dead; Jan Willem just grinned in the way he does, studied it for a second and said, “Oh, you’re doing Mr. Behrens’ type.”

Who was this Mr. Behrens, (fig. 1) why did he cre-ate this most peculiar looking hybrid, and is there a mob of pitchfork-wielding peasants in my future, calling for the death of the monster I’ve reanimat-ed? Let’s find out together.

“Mr. Behrens’ Type”

Fig. 2—Promotional card featuring Behrens-Scrift Mr. Behrens’ house, which he designed. Circa 1920.

4 — Research

Mr. Behrens and the Jugendstil

Mr. Peter Behrens (1868–1940) was one of Germa-ny’s best known architects, and has been credited with creating the world’s first corporate brand with is work for AEG, a German electrical supply com-pany, from 1907 to 1914.A (Fig. 3) He would eventu-ally go on to teach some of the most important Modernists of the 20th Century, including Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. However, Before his career as a successful archi-tect and brand man, he was an just barely making it as a fine artist. He studied at various art schools across Germany, apprenticed, dabbled in the isms of his day, created woodcuts and tempera paint-ings, and finally came upon the Arts and Crafts movement around the late 1890s. The movement’s preference for the organic and the handmade intrigued him. Around this time, “His activity as a painter gradually declined,” as he renounced the Fine Arts in favor of the so-called “Applied Arts” including working in new media such as, “porce-lain, glass and furniture.”B

As an extension of this contemporary enthusi-asm for Nietzschean “total art”, many German artists including Behrens entered the typeface design field. This group of newcomers to the field were known as Künstlerschriften (“artist type

Fig. 3—AEG Logo. 1907

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designers”) in German, and this period of influx marked, “The first time in which former fine artists entered the area of type design, without know-ing traditional techniques or materials... [and] whose principal interests perhaps lay elsewhere.”C

Behrens, like others, was swept up in this desire to create typefaces, and like many others, found willing publishers in Rudhard’sche Gießerei.D Many traditional foundries would not accept Mr. Beh-rens’ type as-is, and insisted upon modifications he was not willing to make . Behrens once wrote to a friend, “I’ve experienced the most depressing things with my type... All those who have an opin-ion to air on matters of typography naturally find it ‘outstanding,’ but they would like to have this or that altered... What do you think? Do you perhaps know a founder who has eyes for the coming style of our time?”E

fig. 4—possibly third edition of the Behrens-schrift type specimen. circa 1905–10. Overleaf: fig. 5—original sketches by peter behrens, ink or guache on four boards. circa 1900.

8 — Research

In the era that Behrens was designing his type-face, there was a typographic sea change that was about overtake the German people. There was a conflict between those who thought that Ger-many should continue using the Fraktur types that almost every German text was set in, (fig. 6) and the “new” Antiqua types that the rest of Western Europe had long been employing. The early 20th Century was a time of political upheaval and eco-nomic unrest for Germany and “letterform-style became a symptom of the continuing search for a German cultural voice.”F

Peter Behrens, with the design of Behrens-Schrift, weighed the two sides equally and endeavored

Fraktur vs. Antiqua

Fig. 6—German newspaper with fraktur type. 1895.

9

to find a new letterform that was new, but was rooted deeply in the tradition of the German people. He detested the Fraktur with its “garish embellishments” but recognized its ancestor, the “gothic script”, for its role in uniting the German People for hundreds of years. So, in an unmistak-ably Noordzij-esque manner, to create something that he would consider to be “in the style of our time”, he decides to return to the one thing that united both scripts—the broad nib pen.G (Fig 3) “Behrens equated the pen-derivation with the integrity and formality of letterforms,” and thus decided that the pen was to be the basis of any worthy typeface, especially his.H

Above all, with this broad nib-based typeface with gothic proportions, Mr. Behrens wanted to achieve the most modern of forms. The flourishes of the late 19th Century Fraktur, he writes, “irreverently deny any artistic principle of the construction,” and urges that the German designers of his time to “throw off superficial trinkets and replace them with practical objects of high quality, which clearly display their utility and indicate their usability and efficiency” in the new century.I

Fig. 7—mr. behrens’ diagram of the evolution of the “a” from medieval times to the 19th century. He particularly loathes the increase in ornamentation. From the Behrens-schrift introduction. 1902.

10 — Research

Behrens- Style

It is not an understatement in the least to say that Behrens had high hopes for his first typeface. In his introduction to the Behrens-Schrift specimen he talks about the difficulties of “inventing a new style of writing” which would be suitable to “read the majestic language of Nietzsche in.”AJ “Behrens’ statements in his Behrens-Schrift preface reflect the serious nature of the man and his intentions for the type as a piece of everyday art,” and to update the look of the language of the German people to match the modern times.AA

With all his talk of reduction of his hated flour-ishes however, it is almost a shock to open up the and see decorative borders and intricate initial caps. (fig. 9) Indeed, Behrens spent almost as much time on the ornaments as the type itself.AB Though visually incongruous with his words, these details were, to him, important references to the illuminated manuscripts that also contained the medieval “gothic scripts” that influenced his design, and were a further attempt to show that he was going “back to basics” in a way.AC Still, the references were confusing, and one can’t help seeing a disconnect between the type they are presented with, and the type that Behrens de-scribes in his preface.

Chris Burke argues that Mr. Behrens was a man in conflict with himself. On one hand, he wanted to

Fig. 8—colorful illustrations and floral borders found in the behrens-schrift specimen. 1902.

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modernize the type of the German people, remov-ing the style of the “century of materialism” from the Fraktur, but on the other hand he was bogged down with the style of his own time. Burke con-cludes that even though the lettering on Behrens’ architecture later in his life were more conser-vative than his Jugendstil-laden typefaces, Mr. Behrens was unable to “stifle his powerful Kunst-wollen,” or “artistic will”, causing him to ultimately fail in his goals to create a new German style that was both usable and efficient.AD

In a way, the typeface that I chose for this project was a failed experiment—a sort of typeface de-signed to be timely and timeless at the same time. In the end, Behrens-Schrift was only popular, mostly among traditionalist book artists, for a couple of decades until the Second World War.AE However confused and antiquated Behrens-Schrift seems, its charming, quirky, Schriftkünstler forms called out to me, and I decided that this monster deserved to be stitched together again and given another shot at life.

Fig. 9—An example of the intricate, two-color initial caps designed together with Behrens-schrift. 1902.

12 — Research

A “AEG - 100 Years of Inspiration.” AEG - Welcome to the World of AEG. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. <http://www.aeg.com/node367.asp>.

B Windsor, Alan. “Early Life and Career.” Peter Behrens: Architect and Designer. London: Architectural, 1981. p11. Print.

C Burke, Chris. “Peter Behrens and the German Letter: Type Design and Architectural Lettering.” Journal of Design History 5.1 (1992): p26. Print.

D Rudhard’sche Gießerei, later renamed Schriftgießerei Gebrüder Klingspor, took in many of the new Künstler-schriften, including Behrens’ friend Otto Eckmann, designer of Eckmann-Schrift. Eckmann’s type and Behrens’, being the first two typefaces pub-lished by Rudhard’sche Gießerei were often marketed side by side. Other foundries followed Rudhard’sche Gießerei’s lead, and Germany was soon flush with new, expressive typefaces, fit for headline and text in such popular Jugendstil-era publica-

tions as Pan, Simplicissimus, and the eponymous Jugend.

E Letter from Behrens to Diederichs, 17 May 1900. Eugen Diederichs, Selbstzeugnisse und Briefe von Zeit-genossen, Düsseldorf and Cologne, Diederichs, 1967, pp111-13.

F Burke, Chris. p26.

G Behrens, Peter. “Von der Entwick-lung der Schrift! (On the Develop-ment of the Type!)” October 1902. German, English trans. by Chris Burke.

H Burke, Chris. p21.

I Behrens, Peter.

AJ Behrens, Peter.

AA Burke, Chris. p30.

AB Burke, Chris. p23.

AC Burke, Chris. p23.

AD Burke, Chris. p31.

AE Burke, Chris. p23.

Notes and References

Work process & specimen

19 My Research

20 My Wild Ideas

21 Two Previous Revivals

22 Character Comparisons

23 Size and Detail Comparisons

24 Spread Comparison

26 Text Setting Example

27 Planegg Character Set

28 OpenType Features

29 Conclusion

30 C0lophon

Planegga revival by col in m. ford

fig. 10—My research at the klingspor library

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My research began immediately after I had picked up Planegg (the book)in September. Initial internet search-ing turned up the aforementioned digital revivals and the fact that Behrens had worked with the Kling-spor foundry in Offenbach am Main. At the Koninklijke Bibliotheek I was only able to find information about Klingspor in German—a language that I cannot even begin to speak or read—which will set the tone for most of my research process. I got my first look at Behrens-Schrift in a Klingspor general specimen at the University of Amsterdam’s special collections, but I decided that I needed more of the real thing and booked train tickets to Frankfurt to see the materials in the Klingspor library.

Once at the Klingspor library, I got to see the most fantastic things; the librarian, Helga Horschig, brought out example after example from the stacks, and I could barely keep up with photographing them all. I got to see the slight variations in design that took place over the life of Behrens-

Schrift, and the considerations that the punchcutter took when cutting the type for small sizes. Many of the flourishes and details were eliminated at small sizes, making the smallest size surprisingly simple and read-able. This realization would ultimately have an impact upon me months later when I was struggling to find a solu-tion and a thesis for my typeface.

Though I found my solution in the Klingspor library, I also found my problem: before I left, Helga gave me a copy of the Chris Burke paper on Peter Behrens. In the footnotes, the paper included a translation of the introduction to the Behrens-Schrift specimen that Peter Behrens wrote in 1902 on his intentions for his typeface (I summarize his ideas in the research section). As much as it helped to know the designer’s original thoughts and theories, it would prove trouble-some in the weeks ahead as I would struggle to reconcile his words with his designs. Reading his words on the train back to The Hague, I felt then that I knew too much.

My Research

16 — Work Process and Specimen

After I got back from Offenbach, I took longer than I should have decid-ing upon which direction to go with my revival. I had gotten into a trap before with my previous typeface where I just started to design without a specific direction in mind and I just wound up changing my entire direc-tion every week or so. I can see now that I was paralyzed by that experience in a way, and I wound up over-thinking the beginning of this typeface.

Knowing the thoughts and intentions of Mr. Behrens was overwhelming in a way, and it convinced me that I should not just revive his forms, but revive his ideas as well. I decided that I should take his ideas, formulated in the Jugendstil age, and apply them to today to get the form of my typeface.

This decision centered around one of his most famous quotes, “One of the most eloquent means of expressing the style of any epoch is through its letterforms. After architecture, they probably give the most characteristic picture of a time and the best evi-

dence of the state of a nation’s spiri-tual development.” I extended this idea to music as well, as when I, in my 21st Century mindset, think of things that define an epoch, music weighs pretty heavily in my assessment. In the 1902, recorded sound was in its infancy and would not have colored Behrens’ assessments of past epochs as it does for us today.

We all know the aural hallmarks of specific decades pretty well: for the 1970s it was the disco beat, for the 1980s it was the synthesizer, and for the 1990s it was the cut together samples used by a nascent hip-hop scene. I took a guess and decided the hallmark of the decade we just left behind would be the Auto-Tune device used by hip-hop vocalists to make their voice sound robotic. Tak-ing this idea further, I decided that I would try to remix and Auto-Tune Mr. Behrens’ typeface, making it seem contemporary.

Tests that I made were neither for-mally or philosophically fulfilling. I could not apply my idea correctly to

My Wild Ideas

17

the typeface medium without making it formally less interesting. I gave up on it, and retreated back to the beginning of the assignment. Seeing that this typeface was festooned with the style of its time, created in the political and artistic environment of its time, I decided that building style upon the style that was already there was counterproductive to my goal of contemporizing the typeface. Instead I should be distilling the typeface down to its core, stripping most of its style away, leaving something that is essentially timeless. I remembered and again looked to the small sizes that I encountered at the Klingspor library for my influences, seeing that they are the most formally pure ver-sion of Behrens-Schrift, and I built my project with simplification in mind.

The day that I showed the class my book with Behrens-Schrift I learned of two other previous revivals—one by URW and another that was being given away for free on free font web-sites. The free one, predictably, had auto-traced outlines and missing a good amount of characters. The URW version by Ralph M. Unger was better and had invented semi-usable forms that probably had never existed in the original, but in the end the forms of the letters were rationalized and sharpened in a way that I did not find appealing. Both were, in the scope of things, fairly recent and further searching turned up no revivals that had been made before 2000. Finally, both seemed to be based upon the version of the typeface that was in the Rudhard’sche Gießerei specimen, which, in ways I will explain later, dif-fered from the version found in my source.

Two Previous Revivals

18 — Work Process and Specimen

Character comparisons

original autotrace final revivalexpiramentation

19

S ize and Detail comparisons

20pt “Text” size

specimen

6pt “nonpareille” size

planegg

Note that in the “text” size, the serif details get more minute, even fussy. In the “Nonparelle” size, the letters, although obscured by ink squeeze, are more simple.

Secondly, the letters in the book that I found, Planegg, had two things different from the Rudhard’sche Gießerei specimen: the “m” is asymetrical, and the dot on the “i” is comma-shaped. In my typeface, I balanced the “m”, as in tests it stuck out, but kept the “i” the way it was.

20 — Work Process and Specimen

fig.11a—original book page

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Mitternacht. Die blauen Wiesen träumen Unter Wolken mit beglänzten Säumen,

Und die großen Wälder stehn wie Heere, Allem Lärm und Leid der Welt zur Wehre . . . .

Fern vom Dorfe wird der Schloßuhr Schlagen Zu mir durch die klare Luft getragen,

Wo bei Tag die weißen Firne glänzen, Dehnt die Nacht sich dunkel, ohne Grenzen . . . .

Meines Tages Arbeit ist beendet, Meine Seele steht zum Schlaf gewendet,

Doch bevor ich auf die dunkle Reise Sie entlasse, tret’ ich leise, leise,

Ohne Schuhe — heilig ist der Ort, Und der liebe Gott ist nahe dort —

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Mitter- nacht

fig. 11b—Digital revival

22 — Work Process and Specimen

Text sett ing example

Planegg ist eine Gemeinde im oberbay-erischen Landkreis München. Sie liegt südwestlich der Stadtgrenze von München im Tal der Würm. ¶ Geographie: Planegg ist eine Gemeinde im Würmtal an der Grenze der Landkreise München und Starnberg in der Münchner Schotterebene. Sie besteht aus den Ortsteilen Planegg, Martinsried und Steinkirchen. ¶ Wappen: Das Wappen wurde 1951 als Wappen des Ortes Planegg anerkannt. Es zeigt eine rote, goldbewehrte Eule, die aus dem Familienwappen der Familie Hörwarth stammt, die von 1616 bis 1732 über den Ort herrschte. Die blaue Schlangenlinie symbolisiert die Würm, die durch Planegg fließt. ¶ Geschichte: Während Martinsried bereits im 12. Jahrhundert und Steinkirchen im 13. Jahrhundert in den Urkunden der Klöster Dietramszell bzw. Benedikt-

Planegg ist eine Gemeinde im oberbayerischen Landkreis München. Sie liegt südwestlich der Stadtgrenze von München im Tal der Würm. ¶ Geogra-phie: Planegg ist eine Gemeinde im Würmtal an der Grenze der Landkreise München und Starn-berg in der Münchner Schotter-ebene. Sie besteht aus den Ort-steilen Planegg, Martinsried und Steinkirchen. ¶ Wappen: Das Wappen wurde 1951 als Wappen des Ortes Planegg anerkannt. Es zeigt eine rote, goldbewehrte Eule, die aus dem Familien-wappen der Familie Hörwarth stammt, die von 1616 bis 1732 über den Ort herrschte. Die blaue Schlangenlinie symbolisi-ert die Würm, die durch Planegg fließt. ¶ Geschichte: Während Martinsried bereits im 12.

Planegg ist eine Gemeinde im oberbayerischen Landkreis München. Sie liegt südwestlich der Stadtgrenze von München im Tal der Würm. ¶ Geographie: Planegg ist eine Gemeinde im Würmtal an der Grenze der Landkreise München und Starnberg in der Münchner Schotterebene. Sie besteht aus den Ortsteilen Planegg, Martin-sried und Steinkirchen. ¶ Wappen: Das Wap-pen wurde 1951 als Wappen des Ortes Planegg anerkannt. Es zeigt eine rote, goldbewehrte Eule, die aus dem Familienwappen der Familie Hör-warth stammt, die von 1616 bis 1732 über den Ort herrschte. Die blaue Schlangenlinie symbolisiert die Würm, die durch Planegg fließt. ¶ Geschich-te: Während Martinsried bereits im 12. Jahrhun-dert und Steinkirchen im 13. Jahrhundert in den Urkunden der Klöster Dietramszell bzw. Benedik-tbeuern erwähnt werden, ist Planegg wohl der jüngste Ortsname des gesamten Würmtals. Er wurde erstmals 1409 in einer Verkaufsurkunde an den bayerischen Herzog Wilhelm III. erwähnt ¶ Am 1. Oktober 1425 schenkt Herzog Wilhelm diesen neu erworbenen Besitz und die dazuge-hörenden Gemeinden Großhadern, Martinsried, Forstenried, Fürstenried, Neuried und Gräfelfing seinem unehelichen Sohn, Konrad von Egenhofen, Planegg wird Hofmark. Der Ort war nun als Sitz der Hofmarksverwaltung Mittelpunkt und Ger-ichtssitz für das mittlere Würmtal. 1442 kam noch Lochham, 1720 Fronloh und 1724 Krailling dazu.

6pt / 8pt leading

8pt / 10pt leading

10pt / 14pt leading

23

planegg Character Set

basic set

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Za b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ß

numerals and interpunction

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; . , ¡ ! ¿ ? ( / ) [ \ ] « » ‘ ’ ‚ “ ” „ - – — £ $ € ¶

ligatures and stylistic alternates

ſ ch ck fi fl ffi ffl ff tt H � -

accented characters

À Á Â Ã Ä Å Ā Ă Æ Ǽ Ç Ċ Č Ð Ď È É Ê Ë Ē Ĕ Ė Ě Ğ Ġ Ģ Ħ Ì Í Î Ï Ī Ĭ Ķ Ĺ Ļ Ľ Ŀ Ł Ñ Ń Ņ Ň Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ō Ŏ Ő Œ Ŕ Ŗ Ř Ś Ş Š Ţ Ť Ù Ú Û Ü Ū Ŭ Ů Ŵ Ẃ Ẁ Ẅ Ý Ỳ Ŷ Ÿ Ź Ż Ž à á â ã ä å ā ă æ ǽ ç ċ č ð ď è é ê ë ē ĕ ė ě ğ ġ ģ ħ ì í î ï ī ĭ ķ ĺ ļ ľ ŀ ł ñ ń ņ ň ò ó ô õ ö ø ō ŏ ő œ ŕ ŗ ř ś ş š ţ ť ù ú û ü ū ŭ ů ŵ ẃ ẁ ẅ ý ỳ ŷ ÿ ź ż ž

24 — Work Process and Specimen

Opentype features

chick fitted » chick fittedStandard & Descretionary Ligatures

sea-wrist » ſea-wriſtStylistic set 02 + 03—long s + double hyphen

BEHRENS » BEHRENScapital spacing

HITCHED » HIT�EDStylistic set 01 + Descretionary Ligatures + Cap spacing

25

The typeface I created, I believe, gives the best representation of both the forms and the ideas that Peter Behrens intended to be applied to his first typeface. This typeface distills the typefaces he designed in 1902 with Rudhard’sche Gießerei and makes it possible for one to set text for contemporary audiences.

I learned a lot in the process of creating this typeface, including OpenType programming, which I had no knowledge of previously. That knowledge came especially in handy for designing a typeface like Behrens-Schrift which had a lot of antique elements in its original form that I wanted to include but not set as the default. Additionally, though I did not end up implementing it in Planegg’s final form, I also learned a lot about using Python and RoboFab to make changes—some of them quite drastic—to an entire typeface at once.

One style change that I made in particular was to opt for a more Roman-inspired “H” as opposed to

the Fraktur-inspired “H” that was previously the default for the face. I found precedence for this “H” in a few all-caps settings, as the Fraktur “H” tended to stick out the most in an all-caps situation. Also, the long-s remains an option, but is no longer the default. I looked into program-ming Planegg so it would automati-cally place the long-s where it was required, but quickly discovered that many languages have different rules for implementing the long-s so it would be technically impossible without looking each instance up in a dictionary. It was too complicated, but remains there for users who want to give a flavor of a bygone era.

While I know that Planegg would probably never be used to set a book in the 21st Century, like it was used at the beginning of the 20th Century, I hope that this revival will cause designers to take another look at the fascinating and unique Schriftkünstler era it comes from.

Conclusion

Colophon

Text set primarily in 10pt Whitney Medium. Captions in 8pt Whitney Light. Headlines in 12pt Planegg Regular.

Booklet produced in InDesign CS3 on a Mac.

Special thanks to: Paul van der Laan for his direction on this typeface, Helga Horschig at the Klingspor Library for making my visit to the library extremely fruitful, Katherine Hale for helping me stitch the book all the way from Kansas City, and to all of my classmates for their encouraging comments every step of the way.

Printed in The Hague in February, 2011 as part of the type]media MA program.

The typeface Planegg and this book Copyright © 2011 Colin M. Ford