Hermann Zapf
was born in Nuremburg, Germany in 1918. He designed
some of the greatest typestyles of the 20th century. His
greatest inspiration came from Rudolph Koch's work at an exhibition
in Nuremberg in1935. Using texts from Koch and Edward
Johnston he taught himself calligraphy at home. In 1938
after his apprenticeship was completed he went to Frankfurt without
a journeyman's certificate and found a position working for Paul
Koch(son of Rudolph Koch)at his workshop. It was in 1938 that he
designed his first type called "Gilgengart" for the D.
Stempel AG Type Foundry.
After the war
the political climate was such that it was hard to get work, especially
in teaching. He taught his first calligraphy lesson in
Nuremberg in 1946 and under primitive conditions. In
1947 he went back to the Stempel Foundry as the head of the inhouse
printshop. In 1951 he met and married his wife, Gudron
von Hesse, also a noted type designer and calligrapher in her own
right.
His main work
over the years was as a graphic artist involved in book design and
out of principle did no advertising art. Throughout the 1960's and
1970's he was a freelance graphic designer. In 1972 he
created the Macaroni typeface, designed specifically for digital
use. During the 70's and 80's he taught ten years of
special sessions at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester,
N.Y.. His most important areas of expertise came in the
development of different types, such as Palatino, Optim, Optima,
Michaelangelo, Melior, Zapf Chancery,etc..., alphabets for hot metal
composition, then for phototyping, and finally the digital revolution. He
was a genius in solving technical problems along side engineers
and provided a standard of typographic excellence for the next generation
of type designers.
click here for the Zapf font library
click here for Hermann Zapf at work
on his calligraphy
An example of Zapf calligraphy
Sources:
The
Linotype Library life story of Hermann Zapf
The
many faces of Hermann Zapf by Carol Mahoney 1998
A
letter from Hermann Zapf to the Caxton Club of Chicago
Zapf:
A biography
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