Collotype
Publicite Presente Par A.M. Cassandre (L’art International D’ Aujourd’ Hui #12)
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold: Collotype from the Portfolio PUBLICITE PRESENTE PAR A.M. CASSANDRE (L’ART INTERNATIONAL D’ AUJOURD’ HUI #12). Paris: Paris: Editions d’Art Charles Moreau, c. 1929. First edition [ Jan Tschichold, Allemagne / ANNONCE, Plate no. 15]. An Original anthology of modern advertising artwork selected by A. M. Cassandre. A collotype in good condition, with mild edgewear and mild age-toning to edges. Plate size is 9.875 x12.75 (25.0825 cm x 32.385 cm) and blank on verso. Printed by Heliotype (collotype) at Editions d’Art Charles Moreau in Paris.
The PUBLICITE portfolio consisted of 49 color and black and whiteplates selected by A. M.Cassandre to present an overview of Avant-Garde influences in the advertising arts (posters, typography, book design, announcements, etc.) circa 1929. A magnificent and scarce production produced for Charles Moreau’s L’ART INTERNATIONAL D’ AUJOURD’ HUI portfolio series.
Collotype (a dichromate-based process, also called Albertype, Artotype, Autotype, bromoil, Dallastype, Heliotype, Levytype, Paynetype, phototype, photoglyphic) is the most accurate and beautiful method of photomechanical reproduction yet invented. Collotype can produce results difficult to distinguish from actual photographs -- many old postcards are collotypes.
Collotypes have the advantage that they can render continuous graduations of tone without screen intervention. Making and printing of collotype plates is skilled and expensive work and the sensitized gelation surface is too delicate to produce more than two thousand impressions. For these reasons, collotype has been used for luxury publications and, since World War II, has been largely abandoned for other commercial purposes.
As a testament to its quality, many prints with an impressively high image resolution still remain from the Collotype era (circa 1880 to 1970) in perfect archival condition.
Collotype was consistently employed on a relatively small scale throughout most of the twentieth century as a specialist medium for the highest quality book illustrations and single-sheet fine art reproductions. Although its photographically accurate printing characteristics and exceptional colour qualities remain (even in the digital age) largely unparalleled, its economic viability was gradually eroded during the latter half of the twentieth century by faster and cheaper methods of print.
The ability of collotype to print in continuous tone without the use of a halftone screen enabled full colour images to be printed with far more fidelity than any of the subsequent screened, CMYK printing processes which dominate the print world today. Because of this it was able to achieve a wider colour gamut than is currently possible through digital imaging. A further advantage also lay in collotypes’ reliance on highly pigmented inks. These were far purer than modern offset litho inks, containing none of the synthetic additives now used to maintain maximum efficiency for high-speed commercial production.
Recommended reading: Studio Collotype by Kent B. Kirby and The Practice of Collotype by Thomas A. Wilson.
Jan Tschichold (1902 – 1974) was a typographer, book designer, teacher and writer primarily known for DIE NEUE TYPOGRAPHIE [1928] in which the 26-year old Tschichold presented his manifesto of the principles and rules for a new typographic practice that summarized the contemporary avant-garde convictions about elemental forms and clarity of communication.
Tschichold’s principal claim for the new typography is that it is characteristic of the modern age. Writing at a time when many new mass produced products appeared on the market, his intention was to bring typography into line with these other manifestations of industrial culture. Similar to the Russian Constructivists, Tschichold lauds the engineer whose work is marked by “economy, precision,“ and the “use of pure constructional forms that correspond to the functions of the object.”
Tschichold was the most eloquent spokesman of the Neue Werbergestalter (circle of new advertising designers) established by Kurt Schwitters in 1928 and helped to disseminate Constructivist principles with his books. The Circle of New Advertising Designers was a group who coalesced after the first statements on the new typography by Tschchold and Moholy-Nagy, and their purpose was the promotion of a common vision of the avant-garde. Ring neue werbegestalter intentionally echoed the name of The Ring, a group of Berlin-based architects which had been formed a few years earlier.
In Heinz and Bodo Rausch's Gefesselter Blick (1930), The Ring's point of view was defined by Paul Shuitema , acknowledging that modern design involved the separation of hand and machine which previous generations had so strongly fought against: "the designer is not a draughtsman, but rather an organizer of optical and technical factors. His work should not be limited to making notes, placing in groups and organizing things technically."
Tschichold was more succinct: " I attempt to reach the maximum of purpose in my publicity works and to connect the single constructive elements harmoniously -- to design."