Without Walter Käch’s 1949 textbook, Schriften, Lettering, Ecritures: The Principle Types of Running Hand and Drawn Characters, we might not have Univers or Helvetica. Students of type design who learned a particular way of looking for elements in the construction of letters to build upon for typeface families are likely familiar with the Swiss type designer and educator’s teachings, even if they’ve never heard of his seminal book.
Dinamo Editions, the imprint of Berlin-based foundry Dinamo, partnered with the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (affiliated with Zurich University of the Arts, where Käch taught) to reprint Lettering: The Handbook for Lettering by Walter Käch and release it for a new generation of designers.
The lessons in Schriften, Lettering, Ecritures helped shape the distinctive aesthetics and philosophy of mid-century design and have greatly informed design education. Students in Switzerland, including Adrian Frutiger, and far beyond, have been encouraged to mine the patterns, shapes, and ornamentation of the past to inspire their typefaces and to use Käch-devised grids and construction modules to design them.
This is not Dinamo’s first foray into Walter Käch’s world. The team has long collaborated with design and type studio Omnigroup on the project, ABC Walter, a revival not of an old typeface, but rather an exploration of a tool Käch created to help students learn to draw letterforms. The experiment resulted in two typefaces released in 2019: Walter Alte (three styles) is described as a “faithful study” of Käch’s lessons, while Walter Neue (14 styles) is a “digitally-minded” extension.
There’s a fantastic article about Dinamo and Omnigroup’s research and process for ABC Walter, inspired by the same source material included in the reprint of Lettering: The Handbook for Lettering.
Lettering: The Handbook for Lettering will ship in early May.
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