The Danish Lettering Tradition of the 20th Century

Danish type and lettering design in the 20th century has been executed almost exclusively by a number of architects with a penchant for designing alphabets (for use in signage and for logos, etc.) and graphic design. Apparently, this tendency is a saliently Danish phenomenon. These “architect/graphic-designers” have all learned from each other in a series of apprentice/master relationships. This was a lineage that involved, to name the protagonists in chronological sequence: Thorvald Bindesbøll, Knud V. Engelhardt, Gunnar Biilmann Petersen, Claus Achton Friis and Naur Klint – followed by the two living and still active “graphic architects”, Ole Søndergaard and Bo Linnemann.

The focus is this group of individuals practicing in the 20th century, all architects
and all interlinked. Of course, many typefaces are now being designed also by Danish graphic designers that have backgrounds other than architecture. For this reason, this book’s delimitation, 1900-2000, is more than pure formalism: there were radical changes that occurred around both shifts of the century. It appears relevant to take stock now, when the number of new digital alphabets is increasing explosively, while specific national characteristics are simultaneously disappearing, only to be replaced – to a rising degree – by a common idiom that is being developed in a more expanded international forum.

In my research, I have been yearning to examine the extent to which what it is we are seeing, in this connection, is a case of something that is specifically related to an especially national tendency, and how much of this transformation can be chalked up to wider global trends. When it comes to furniture design, “Danish Design” is often a particular and special interpretation of international prototypes. Can the same thing be said about Danish architects’ type design? Does the Danish type and lettering tradition really contain anything that is genuine or anything that is originally Danish? And has the direct “craftsman’s apprenticeship” that has been handed down from one generation to the next, spawned a special idiom or “intonation”?