Günter Gerhard Lange

Günter Gerhard Lange (born April 12, 1921 in Frankfurt (Oder) ; † December 2, 2008 in Munich ) was a German typographer and teacher.

Long was the artistic director of H. Berthold AG for many years . He is regarded as one of the world's most important typographers, promoter of type quality and type designer of the 20th century, who especially shaped type design after 1945.

Life

In 1950, Lange began working as a freelancer at Berthold in Berlin and designed hand- type lead fonts for the newly emerging advertising, among others. a. Derby , Solemnis , Boulevard , Regina , Champion and, as the first set of fonts, the Arena . The first Diatype photo typesetting machine was presented by Berthold in 1958 at Drupa . This marked the beginning of the systematic development of the Berthold font library, which, with its advertising fonts, classic text fonts and contemporary exclusive fonts, was a reference in font design for a long time. Gradually, classic metal type fonts were also transferred to phototypesetting, such as those by Baskerville , Caslon , Garamond , Van Dijck and Walbaum . The long Bodoni Old Face font , based on the classicist font design by Giambattista Bodoni , is considered to be one of his most important reinterpretations. Licensed fonts from International Typeface Corporation (ITC) and Monotype have also been improved under his leadership. Renowned font designers such as Albert Boton , Karl Gerstner , Friedrich Poppl , Kurt Weidemann and Hermann Zapf were advised by "GGL", its well-known abbreviation. After H. Berthold AG was dissolved, Lange continued to work as a type designer and lecturer in Munich and Vienna.

Lange received countless international awards and honorary memberships. Most recently he lived and worked in Munich.

Font designs

Arena , Solemnis , Boulevard , Champion , El Greco , Concorde , Concorde Nova , Akzidenz Grotesk Buch , Franklin- Antiqua , Garamond (new cut), Walbaum (new cut), Caslon (new cut), Berthold Script , Berthold Imago , Baskerville (new cut), Bodoni Old Face , Whittingham .

honors and awards

• 1989: Frederic W. Goudy Award from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)
• 1990: Honorary membership of the " Typographische Gesellschaft München (tgm) " on the occasion of the 100th tgm anniversary
• 2000: Type Directors Club Medal from the New York Type Directors Club
• 2003: Design Prize of the City of Munich

literature

• Heym, Stefan; Klein, Manfred; Zapf, Hermann; u. a .: GGL, Günter Gerhard Lange , Typographische Gesellschaft München, Munich 1983
• TM Typographical Monthly Pages , 2.2003. Special edition Günter Gerhard Lange ; Text: Yvonne Schwemer-Scheddin, Zurich 2003

Web links

• Beinert, Wolfgang: Günter Gerhard Lange, short biography
• Bundscherer, Michael: Portrait photo and quote from GGL (subpage from typolis.de)
• GG Lange: The staging of a message in the area , TYPO Berlin 1996 (video)
• Günter Gerhard Lange: What was. What is. What remains. Quotes that were noted down during a studio talk on September 25, 2003 in Munich.