TYPOGRAPHICA 1
Herbert Spencer (editor)

Herbert Spencer (editor): TYPOGRAPHICA 1. London: Lund Humphries,1949. First edition (original series). A very good magazine in stiff printed wrappers with a very good uncoated (fragile) dustjacket printed in two colors. The DJ has one mild crease along the outer edge of the front panel. One smudge on the back of the Reiner lithograph. Here is a rare opportunity for Graphic Design/modern typography aficionados to own an original edition of the legendary Typographica magazine. If you're reading this, you probably know that issues of this groundbreaking magazine seldom surface on the open market.

Typographica is coveted by multiple constituencies since Spencer vocally championed emerging trends such as Concrete Poetry, Semiotics and avant-garde Book Design.

9.5 x 12.25 magazine with 24 pages printed on a variety of paper stocks. Reproduction techniques for this issue include letterpress and offset-lithography. Paper stocks include matte and uncoated. Also included is a bound-in lithograph by Irme Reiner.

Typographica was the brainchild of founder, editor, designer and renowned typographer Herbert Spencer, and had a brief life, totalling 32 issues published between 1949 and 1967. But its influence stretched and stretches far beyond its modest distribution and print runs of the time. For many graphic designers, Typographica is something of an obsession, to be collected if and when found, savored, and poured over for designs, and techniques not seen since.

Spencer never intended to turn a profit, so no expenses were spared in production (just like Alexey Brodovitch's Portfolio). Different papers, letterpress, tip-ins, and more were all employed in the presentation of an eclectic range of subject matter: Braille, locomotive lettering, sex and typography, typewriter faces, street lettering, matches, and avant-garde poetry all found their way into the magazine.

Contents for this original 1949 issue

  • Frontispiece Drawing lithograph by Irme Reiner
  • Magic and the Art of Writing by Dr. Konrad Bauer
  • The Integration of Photo and Type by Charles Hale
  • The use of Space in Typography by John Tarr

out of stock