Alphabets, edition of the Arts et Métiers Graphiques magazine (1930)

Arts et Métiers Graphiques (AMG) in its number 18, of May 15, 1930, announced the publication of the album Alphabets in these terms: “We thought it would be interesting for [our] readers to have an album presenting different models of letters and which allowed them to realize the evolution of the shape of each of them. We have reserved the exclusivity for the French edition of the album published by Herbert Hoffmann in collaboration with Albert Bruckner, Max Hertwig and Rudolf Koch. Subscription to the album, the circulation of which for the French edition is 500 copies, is for three months reserved exclusively for subscribers to the Arts et Métiers Graphiques magazine.”

Herbert Hoffmann’s publication appeared at the beginning of 1930, in Stuttgart, under the title: Hoffmanns Schriftatlas. Das Schriftschaffen der Gegenwart in Alphabeten und Anwendungen, constitutes an anthology of typographic creation in Germany from the Werkbund to the geometric antiques of the 1925s, including the calligraphic research of Rudolf Koch. A collection of great interest proving the vitality of typography across the Rhine that the Arts et Métiers Graphiques magazine decides to distribute in France, by aggregating the achievements of the Deberny and Peignot foundry (owner of AMG) suitable for being part of this register. The choice is surprising, knowing the distrust of the world of typography in France towards Germany and its works. It is guided by several considerations that the writings of Maximilien Vox illuminate. In 1929, in fact, Vox, typographic advisor to Deberny and Peignot, and one of the main players in AMG, delivered in the journal Art et Décoration, a rather critical vision of the evolution of typography in France

Maximilien Vox, “Typographie”, Art et Décoration, 1929.

, particularly with regard to what is happening in Germany. He makes this observation in particular: “France currently does not have any great specialized and authoritative type designer on the level of Koch, Renner, Ehmke, Bernhard and other German typographic artists”, implicitly indicating that Naudin and Cassandre are occasional designers, despite the praise he gives to Naudin and Bifur. Furthermore, in the spring of 1930, Deberny and Peignot began publishing Europe, which was none other than Paul Renner’s Futura, whose foundry purchased the rights for France, its Empire and French-speaking countries from the Bauer company in Frankfurt. Maximilien Vox, as he later revealed, weighed his resignation on getting the deal done

See: Deberny et Peignot, “Europe”: Beginnings of Futura in France (1928–1929)

. Europe was marketed in the spring of 1930, concurrently with the publication of Alphabets, and would be the subject of a splendid “Divertissements Typographiques” under the direction of Vox a year later.

Document: Archives Signes.