"The New Typography emphasizes contrasts and uses them to create a new unity," Tschichold wrote. "The real meaning of form is made clearer by its opposite." The visual impact of Dexel's poster for a photography exhibition relies on this principle of contrast. Rather than referring to the pictorial content of the exhibition, the strips of reversed lettering emphasize the technical process of printing photographs from a negative. Ironically, the machinelike precision of the lettering was achieved by laborious and highly skilled handworkÂthe text was engraved letter by letter into linoleum, a material notoriously difficult to incise with such accuracy.
Gallery label from The New Typography, December 23, 2009-July 26, 2010.
