Beatrice Warde

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Beatrice Warde (born September 20, 1900 in New York City , USA , died September 16, 1969 in Epsom , Surrey , England , née Beatrice Becker ) was an American typographer and author .

Live and act

Beatrice Warde was born in New York, the only daughter of May Lamberton Becker, a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune , and Gustave Becker, composer and teacher. Warde discovered her interest in calligraphy early on , deepened it during her studies at Barnard College at Columbia University and then expanded it through her work as an assistant in the library of the American Type Founders Company from 1921–1925 to include the areas of typeface and printing history.

In 1925 she emigrated to Europe with her husband, the typeface designer Frederic Warde , where she wrote for the renowned specialist magazine The Fleuron , which was published by Stanley Morison (designer of the typeface › Times ‹) . In 1926, the results of Ward's research on the origin of the writings of Claude Garamond , which, as she found out, are partly not to be attributed to him, but to Jean Jannon von Sedan , were published there. She published this as well as other articles under the pseudonym Paul Beaujon . As reasons for her decision, she cited the fact that her husband also writes about typography and it is better if two Wardes do not write on the same subject, and that her maiden name is occupied by her mother in literature. In addition, nobody at the time could have accepted that "a woman could know anything about printing, typography, and such-like."

When her alter ego Beaujon was offered a position as an editor at Monotype Recorder in 1927 due to this and other articles , Beatrice Warde took the position, which initially aroused astonishment, but she was promoted to advertising manager in 1929 - a position that she had up to hers Retired in 1960. She commented on her attitude with the words: “They had never hired a woman in their place above the rank of secretary and had no idea how to deal with› her ‹. But I got […] the job with the use of a secretary and part of a desk. «These and other statements illustrate that, despite the respect that she was shown for her professional and personal qualities, she always felt like an outsider in one of Men dominated world.

Teaching and lecturing were an important part of her life and work. Their theoretical presentations made them better known than their design. She herself rated verbal communication as her greatest strength: "What I'm really good at is standing up in front of an audience with no preparation at all and then for 50 minutes refusing to let them even wriggle an ankle." Warde war until the 1960s successfully for the external communication of Monotype responsible, "Beatrice Warde had the popular touch (as Morison hardly had) and what able to make links with the world of printing education and the trade at large."

reception

Today she is known as the ›First Lady of Typography‹ because she is one of the few women who made a name for themselves in typography before the computer age. Warde was also the first woman to speak to the British Printing Society in 1928 - she was not yet 30 years old. She was wearing a black chiffon dress with a large orchid; according to their own admission, to shock their audience a little. Her opinion on typography is inscribed in design history, which is particularly expressed in her essay ›The Crystal Goblet‹, which is still influential today: She believed in the ability of classic typography to communicate ideas and even to defend freedom (modern typography rejected it as self-referential). To do this, however, the typography must be "crystal clear", which also means freedom from ornamentation, but primarily, according to Ward's view, the artist must refrain from placing his personality and its expression above the textual statement. The essay is based on a speech she gave to the International Society of Typographic Designers in London.

Works

In addition to her best-known essay ›The Crystal Goblet‹, Beatrice Warde has published numerous other texts, some under the name of Paul Beaujon :

  • Beaujon, Paul: The Garamond Type, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Sources Considered. In: The Fleuron, 1926.
  • Warde, Beatrice: Type faces, old and new. In: The Library, September 1, 1935, pp. 4-XVI (2): 121-143. TYPE FACES, OLD AND NEW . ISSN  0024-2160 .
  • An American in England (Pen name of Warde), Enjoying England: A book about an enchanted Island, published by the LNER, 1931
  • Ibbett, William J .: Preface. One Hundred Facets of Winter and Spring. Paul, Beaujon. Shaftesbury at the High House Press 1931.
  • Beaujon, Paul: Peace under the Earth: dialogues from the year 1946 recorded by Paul Beaujon. London: Megaw 1938.
  • Warde, Beatrice: "Books as Ammunition". Wilson Library Bulletin, October 1943.
  • Warde, Beatrice: “Whither British Typography?”. Printing Review, Summer 1945.
  • Jacob, H. ed., Beatrice Warde, The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography , Sylvan Press, London, 1955.
  • Warde, Beatrice: I Am a Communicator - A Selection of Writings and Talks by Beatrice Warde, edited by The Monotype Recorder. Monotype Corporation 1970.
  • Steinberg, SH: Foreword. In: Five Hundred Years of Printing. Warde, Beatrice. Mineola: Dover Publications 2017. pp. 7-10. ISBN 978-1-884718-19-9 .

Web links

Commons : Beatrice Warde  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Beatrice Warde (1900-1969). University of Brighton, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  2. ^ Oxford dictionary of national biography. Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  3. ^ Sara De Bondt: Beatrice Warde: Manners and type. Eye Magazine, 2012, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Beatrice Warde: the Garamond Types . In: The Fleuron . No. 5 , 1926, pp. 131-179 .
  5. ↑ Allan Haley: Typographic Milestones . John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 1992, ISBN 978-0-471-28894-7 , pp. 126 .
  6. ↑ Allan Haley: Typographic Milestones . John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 1992, ISBN 978-0-471-28894-7 , pp. 127 .
  7. ↑ Allan Haley: Typographic Milestones . John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 1992, ISBN 978-0-471-28894-7 , pp. 129 .
  8. ^ Robin Kinross: Modern typography - An Essay in Critical History. Princeton Architectural Press, London 1997, ISBN 978-0-907259-05-3 , pp. 65 .
  9. ↑ Obituary Anon: Mrs. Beatrice Warde. First Lady of Typography . In: The Times . No. 57666 , September 16, 1969, p. 12 .
  10. ↑ Allan Haley: Typographic Milestones . John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 1992, ISBN 978-0-471-28894-7 , pp. 124 .
  11. ↑ Beatrice Warde: The Cristal Goblet. (PDF) 1932, accessed December 20, 2019 (English).
  12. ↑ Emily McVarish: The Crystal Goblet: The Underpinnings of Typographic Convention . In: Design and Culture . tape 2: 3 , pp. 285-307 .
personal data
SURNAME Warde, Beatrice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Becker, Beatrice (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American typographer and author
DATE OF BIRTH 20th September 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , USA
DATE OF DEATH 16th September 1969
Place of death Epsom , Surrey , England