Hermann Zapf
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign and the Mexican Social Security Institute all have one thing in common. They use the typeface Optima, which was developed by Herman Zapf between 1952 and 1955. Zapf has two-hundred plus typefaces credited to his name and possibly more as still resides in Darmstadt, German. Zapf life story starts with mayhem and through many difficulties and triumphs Zapf is one of the most influential, significant and successful typographers to this day.
Hermann Zapf born in Nuremberg on November 8 1918 into a time of political mayhem. On this day a workers’ and soldiers’ council tool political control of Nuremberg, Munich and Berlin went into revolution and on November 9 1918 the war ended and Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland. Adding to the mayhem was the Spanish flu that spread throughout Europe in 1918 and 1919 killing come 20 million people including two of Zapf’s siblings.
In his early school years Zapf had a fascination with the natural sciences, the technicalities and refinement of the electrical machines and the excitement that came with chemical experiments led to his dedication at becoming an electrical engineer. Although his experimentation with the letterform starts during this time as well with “secret documents” which his friends and him would write back and forth to each other in class. These documents were not legible in fact the crazier they were the better, they were only decipherable if the other person had the code or alphabet in which they were written. In 1933 his father was discharged from the factory in which he worked due to political factors put even more financial stress on the family and his dream of going to a technical school was let go.
Zapf was good at drawing and so his teachers suggested finding an apprenticeship with a graphic processing plant as a lithographer or etcher. With so much political stress all the interviews involved questions asking about his political view and although they liked his work non accepted him. Until March of 1934 when Karl Ulrich and Co interviewed him asking no political question and no positions open for lithography duties asked him to be a retoucher. Not knowing what a retoucher did Zapz accepted the position. And for the next four years he apprenticed mostly cleaning and other various odd duties he became a photo-retoucher.
In 1935 an exhibition in Norishalle in Nuremberg in memory of Rudolf Koch caught his attention and became the true start of Zapf’s lettering career. He bought Kochs book titled “Das Schreiben als Kunstfertigkeit” (the Art of Writing) and a textbook about lettering by Edward Johnston which he used to teach himself the art of the letter using a broas-edged pen, he also used the Nuremberg city library as a source. At the library he took influences from the
of the sixteenth century and broke away from Koch’s expressionistic style using more of Johnson’s methods. His boss at Karl Ulrich and Co soon recognized his talents and had him retouching letterforms and staying after hours fixing the letterforms of his colleagues. When his apprenticeship was over he ended up studying under Paul Koch, the son of his original interest Rudolph Koch, most of his tasks included typography and the writing of song books. He designed two typefaces for musical notation but everything was destroyed when the printing plant was bombed in an air raid, nothing survived. Even though he wasn’t making much money he continued to seize the opportunities of meeting locals and learning the true art of typography. During this time he was introduced to Gustav Mori and D. Stempel AG type foundry and Linotype GmbH and for them he designed his first printed type called “Gilgenart” which was banned in 1941 by the political rulers and widespread use of the font ceased.
War broke out again in September 1939 and Zapf was sent to the artillery in Weimer which didn’t last long due to the stress Zapf put on his officers because of how clumsy and un coordinated he was with a gun. So he was sent to do training as a Cartographer in Juterbrg then to Dijon finally ending up in Bordeaux where he drew secret maps of Spain. His work was highly respected and he could write letters in 1 millimeter without using a magnifying glass this sikill probably kept him from being transported back onto the fighting lines. After the war ended Zapf became a prisoner of war by France still being held in high regards due to his artistic ability he was sent home 4 weeks after the war ended where he returned back to Nuremberg.
taught in Nuremberg until 1947 when he went back to Frankfurt when the Stempel type foundry employed him as the artistic head of the in-house print shop. It was here where the publication “Feder und Stichel” (Pen and Graver) was produced. It consisted of 25 plates cut into metal by August Rosenberger during the air raids on Frankfurt. This book is known to be one of the finest books published in the past 100 years due to its perfection in the printing and fine quality.
Some of his work he is most famous for is the development of the typefaces Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino. He also made progress in alphabets for hot metal composition, photosetting and the digital resolution of types.
Palatino is a serif old style typeface made available by the Linotype foundry in 1948 it was created in conjction with August Rosenberger.. In 1999 the typeface was modified for Linotype and Microsoft called Palatino Linotype the family c
ontinued to grow and Palatino nova, Palatino Sans,and Palatio Sans informal. The basic Palatio is named after Giambattista Palation and is based on the Italian Renaissance humanistic forms. The letters are formed by a broadnibed pen, which allows a sort of calligraphic feel. Palatino’s uniqueness can be seen in the largeness of the proportions in its stroke and its connection with the serifs. It is the most widely used typefaces and is in almost all technology because of the ease in which in can be read. This font was first seen in 10-point on Japanese paper the deluxe edition of “Feder and Stichel.”
Optima a sans-serif typeface designed between 1952 and 1955 for the D. Stempel AG foundry. It has influence from the Italian renaissance and follows the humanist perspective, specifically the inscriptions on the floor of the Santa Croce Church in Florence and uses Golden Selection in its perfection. The name Optima was given by the publisher, Zapf wanted the name to be Neu Antiqua. It was one of the only things about the font he did not do himself, during the process of creating the font he kept everything under wraps so he could figure out all of the details on his own. The font was released in only regular and bold and in 1958 italic. Optima is the font used for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Mexican Social Security Institute.
During the years while he was developing Optima and Palatino his biggest accomplishment was writing the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations in four different languages. Technical developments during the sixties were enourmous moving from Gutenbergs press to typesetting production. In 1964 Dr. Rudolf Hell inveted the Digiset photocomposition machine and Zapf had ideas to improve and make it easier to produce typefaces at the time no one wanted to hear these ideas in Germany so Zapf cam to the United States of America. His breakthrough came while speaking at the Carpender Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in 1964 which lead to a professorship opportunity at the University of Texas in Austin but his wife refused to move to Texas and so he went back to Germany. Companies succeeded only to fail until he put all of his expertise into a composition program for the improvement of typesetting quality called “hz program.” It is hard to explain how it works but it was introduced as computer technology increased. Zapf describes it as "partly based on a typographically acceptable expansion or condensing of letters, called scaling. Connected with this is a kerning program which calculates kerning values at 100 pairs per second. The kerning is not limited only to negative changes of space between two critical characters, but also allows in some cases positive kerning, which means the addition of space.” The goal of the program is to have narrow spacing between words and justified lines for low coast and easy readability solutions.
Zapf has a typeface named after himself called Zapfino produced by Linotype GmbH in 1998., in conjunction with Donald Knuth and David Siegel at Stanford University for the American Mathematical Society. Siegel wanted to get into the type business and approached Zapf for help, using sketches from his notebook in 1944 and combining it with digital technology. The type would have many variations including ornamental and decorative script automatically mixing different variants of the same letter within a word. For example there were nine different variants of the letter d. Siegel dropped out of helping due to girl problems and Zapfino’s development was put to a serious halt. Zapf was not about to give up and presented the typeface to Linotype due to the technology at hand it was made possible and they agreed on 4 different alphabets.
Zapfino is the most recent major progression made by Hermann Zape in the world of type. He has dipped his hand in the movie business produced in 1967 an experience although Zapf insists he would never do it again.
“The making of letters in every form is for me the purest and the greatest pleasure, and at many stages of my life it was to me what a song is to the singer, a picture to the painter, a shout to the elated, or a sigh to the oppresses—it was and for me the most happy and perfect expression of my life.”
-Rudolf Koch 1932
List of Fonts
Aldus® (1954), Aldus Nova (2005), Aurelia™ (1983), Comenius® Antiqua BQ (1976), Edison™ (1978), Kompakt™ (1954), Marconi® (1976), Medici® Script (1971), Melior® (1952), Noris Script® (1976), Optima® (1958), Optima nova (2002), Orion™ (1974), Palatino™® (1950), Palatino nova (2005), Palatino™ Sans (2006), Saphir™ (1953), Sistina® (1950), Vario™ (1982), Venture™ (1969), Linotype Zapf Essentials™ (2002), Zapfino® (1998), Zapfino Extra (2003), ITC Zapf Chancery® (1979) ITC Zapf International® (1976), ITC Zapf Book® (1976), Zapf Renaissance Antiqua™ (1984–1987), ITC Zapf Dingbats® (1978).
These fonts can be seen here
I have grown a particular interest in the Zapfino typeface. A truly elegant and different typeface based on different variations of the same letter at random in the same word seems to me so innovative. Truly based on the handwriting of Hermann Zapf put into use with the advancement of technology each letter having at least four variations. I would classify this font as an old style font for sure due to its handwriting influence and the extreme thick and thinness variation of the strokes. It also includes ligatures and ornaments. The history of the font goes back to his secret documents when the letters were almost completely illegible, it reminds me of the renaissance manuscripts which were decorative based. This font is truly Zapf in influence with the Italian renaissance (like optima and palatino) feel and and decorative elements. I have fallen in love with its elegance and can almost feel my hand floating over the high ascenders and descenders. The ornamental type is also intriguing and takes on the elegance of a lady's hand in the symbols and objects it recreates. I think this font encompasses all that Zapf stands for in a single typeface family.
Time
In 1998 many things occurred. The typeface Zapfino was revealed on Novemebr 8 for Hermann's 80th birthday and while nothing important specifically happened on the date besides its release. However during the year of 1998 it was revealed the President Clinton was having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. In Global news Un Secretary General Kofi Annan obtains Saddam Hussein's agreement to continue there work in searching for weapons of mass destruction. Iran tests a medium-range missile and Karabaschi is ordered to pay fines. The U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam are linked to Osama bin Ladan. A peace accord is signed in Washington that calls for the withdrawal of Israeli trips and a release of Palestinians. There are many other political and social events that occurred and can be seen here.
Bibliography
25 Oct 2008, 20:00 UTC. 10 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Hermann_Zapf&oldid=247634754>"1998." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2008. Answers.com 10 Nov. 2008.http://www.answers.com/topic/1998"
1998." People's Chronology. The Gale Group, Inc, 2005. Answers.com 10 Nov.2008.http://www.answers.com/topic/1998
Dreyfus, John; Erichson, Knut. ABC-XYZapf: fifty years in alphabet design: professional and personal contributions selected for Hermann Zapf. London: Wynkyn de Worde Society ; Offenbach : Bund Deutscher Buchkünstler ; New York : Distribution by Kelly/Winterton Press, , 1989.
Zapf, Hermann. About Alphabets. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1970
Zapf, Hermann. Alphabet Stories: A chronical of Technical Developments . Rochester, N.Y.: Rit, Cary Graphic Arts Press, 2007
Zapf, Hermann et.al. Calligraphic Type Design in the Digital Age. Corte Madera: Gingko Press, 2001.
Zapf, Hermann. "The Lifestory of Hermann Zapf." Linotype. 2008. linotype GmbH. 10 Nov 2008
25 Oct 2008, 20:00 UTC. 10 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hermann_Zapf&oldid=247634754>
Resources
">video