Jan Tschichold was born on February 4, 1902 in Leipiz, Germany. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 and naturalized in 1942. He studied Teacher Training College, Grimma, near Leipzig, 1916-19; private studies in graphics and typography.He also studied graphic design under Hermann Delitsch, at the Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Production.He married Edith Kramer in 1926 and had one son named Peter. He died on November 8, 1974, Locano in Switzerland.
Hi titles of career were typography, author, calligrapher and teacher. Here summarizes his contribution to the design world. He was trained in calligraphy and book production, Jan Tschichold was grounded in a knowledge of production processes. Unlike artist typographery he could communicate his intentions precisely. Among other characteristics feature of all his mature work are sensitivity to physical materials and letterforms, as well as the semantic content of text and image. He always took great care in the smallest details of visual placing.
Jan Tschichold experienced a sudden conversion to modernism in 1923. His achievement was to absorb and refine principals suggested by slightly preceeding modernists, then to propagate them within the printing trade. The seriousness with which Tschichold practised typography can be see in the arguments that surrounded his break with modernism. Tschichold turned away from modernism, but he continued to work with the tasks and technologies of the modern world. Tschichold became, from 1928 and up to the end of his life a remarkable prolific author of articles about typography in the specialist press. To me he seemed to be really passionate about typography and his knowledge of it to the extent of sharing it and expressing it in posters and book covers. There are examples of his posters and book covers on the page of History of Works.