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Harald Geisler

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Harald Geisler
Born1980 (age 43–44)
Frankfurt am Main
Alma materHochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main
Notable workSigmund Freud Typeface, Albert Einstein Font, Typographic Wall Calendar, Typographic Postcards Series

Harald Geisler is an artist known for his typographic projects about the role of writing in society.[1][2] He was born 1980 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and graduated in 2009 at the University of Art and Design Offenbach am Main.[3]

In 2009 Geisler started creating typefaces and since then released 28 typefaces.[4] With an emphasis on handwriting he developed a method to design fonts that focuses on movement rather than outlines.[5] In 2013 while drawing a font based on Sigmund Freud's manuscripts he started to store multiple versions of each letter in the font instead of fixed ligatures, and created a technique called polyalphabetic substitution that would alter between multiple versions of each letter based on the surrounding letters.[6] This means that when a typist types, the ligatures in each word change so that they are not overused, giving the writing a more realistic look. The technique was based on the rotating barrels of an Enigma encryption machine.

His work is controversially discussed among designers and aims to engage a wider audience in a discourse about typography.[7] His projects are often financed through crowdfunding.

Typefaces

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Sigmund Freud Font used in The Times of London

Sigmund Freud Typeface

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The idea of the Sigmund Freud typeface is inspired by imagining a person writing a letter to his or hers shrink in Sigmund Freud's handwriting.[8][5] It is based on eight handwritten documents from 1883 to 1938[9] selected from the archive of the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna.[10] in 2015 the font was used in the Times, replacing Times New Roman font in a headline of an article discussing the value of handwriting.[11]

Samples of Albert Einstein's handwriting compared with the Albert Einstein Font.

Albert Einstein Font

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The Albert Einstein Font is based on Albert Einstein's handwriting.[12] The font holds five variations of each letter that are based on manuscripts from the Albert Einstein Archives in Jerusalem. The letters were recreated using a digital pen to reconstruct the original movement that was used to create them.[4] The project was supported by the Albert Einstein Estate and the production of the font was funded through a Kickstarter Campaign supported by 2334 Backers.[13][14]

Conspired Lovers Font Specimen

Conspired Lovers

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Conspired Lovers is based on Geisler's own handwriting.[15] The design of the font is inspired by love-letter writing.[16][17]

Notable works

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Pen-pals Project

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The Pen-pals Project was a historic reenactment of the letter exchange between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud in 1932, discussing the possibility to "free mankind from the menace of war"[18]. In 2017, commemorating the 85th anniversary of the exchange, Geisler reproduced and send the letters from the same location and time of year. Supporters of the project on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter received copies of the letters or addressed copies to politicians.[19]

Typographic Wall Calendar

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The Typographic Wall Calendar is a poster series about the notation of time.[20] It is compiled of the number of used keyboard keys that enumerate the year, laid out in a grid and read from left to right.[21] The first print of the series was produced in 2009.[22]

Typographic Postcards

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Started as a spin off from the Typographic Wall Calendar Series[23] and since then produced 28 typographic cards based on the topic of writing.[24]

Publications

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Designing Programmes

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In collaboration with Karl Gerstner, Geisler created in 2007 an updated version of Gerstner's "Designing Programmes" form 1964.[25][26]

See also

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Albert Einstein in popular culture#In typography

References

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  1. ^ Sloat, Sarah (2015-06-03). "Want Your Writing to Look Like Einstein's? Computers Mimic Handwriting of the Famous". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  2. ^ Quito, Anne. "A new font based on Einstein's handwriting will let you write like a genius". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  3. ^ Williams, Rhiannon (2015-05-06). "Write like a genius with Albert Einstein's handwriting font". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  4. ^ a b "Font of knowledge — Albert Einstein's handwriting turned into typeface | The Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  5. ^ a b Dean, James (2015-06-05). "You too can type in font of wisdom". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  6. ^ MacDonald, Fiona. "You'll Soon Be Able to Type Everything in Einstein's Handwriting, Thanks to This New Font". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  7. ^ "Love type? 15 type designers to watch out for in 2016". Learn. 2016-01-22. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  8. ^ Sloat, Sarah (2013-11-25). "Typographer Turns Freud into a Font". WSJ. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  9. ^ Vahab, Daniel (2013-04-01). "Kickstarter Project Turns Sigmund Freud's Handwriting Into a Computer Font". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  10. ^ Wilson, Mark (2013-05-07). "Kickstarting: Sigmund Freud's Handwriting As A Scrawling Typeface". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  11. ^ "Analyse This". The Times. 2015-06-05. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2019-02-12.(subscription required)
  12. ^ Feltman, Rachel (May 7, 2015). "There's now a font based on Albert Einstein's handwriting". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  13. ^ "BBC World Service - World Update, The font where you can write like Einstein". BBC. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  14. ^ "The 10 quirkiest physics stories of 2015". Physics World. 2015-12-16. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  15. ^ "The world's newest font makes you look like a genius". The Independent. 2015-05-06. Archived from the original on 2022-05-09. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  16. ^ ""Conspired Lovers" by Harald Geisler — 德國 法蘭克福". IdN™ (in Traditional Chinese). 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  17. ^ "Conspired Lovers". PAGE online (in German). 2012-09-14. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  18. ^ "Why war? A letter from Albert Einstein to Sigmund Freud". UNESCO. 2018-06-11. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  19. ^ Jennifer, Noémie; Garcia-Vasquez, Marina (2017-07-21). "New Project Lets You Reenact Einstein and Freud's Remarkable Correspondence". Creators. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  20. ^ "Creator Q&A: Harald Geisler of Typographical Calendar". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  21. ^ Brownlee, John (2014-12-17). "A Typographic Calendar Made Of 2,015 Keyboard Keys". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  22. ^ "2012 Modern Calendars". Design Milk. 2011-12-05. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  23. ^ "Typographic Postcards". www.postcrossing.com. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  24. ^ "Typographic Postcard #28 "WISH YOU WERE HERE"". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  25. ^ Gerstner, Karl (2016-05-31). Designing Programmes at Lars Müller Publishers. ISBN 9783037780930. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  26. ^ Gerstner, Karl (2007). Geisler, Harald; Pabst, Jonas (eds.). Designing Programmes (five essays and an introduction, 3rd revised and enlarged by the author ed.). Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 978-3-03778-093-0. Typography is an art not in spite of its serving a purpose but for that very reason. The designer's freedom lies not at the margin of a task but at its very centre. Only then is the typographer free to perform as an artist when he understands and ponders his task in all its parts. And every solution he finds on this basis will be an integral one, will achieve a unity between language and type, between content and form. Integral means: shaped into a whole. There the Aristotelian dictum that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is assumed. And this vitally concerns typography. Typography is the art of making a whole out of predetermined parts. The typographer "sets". He sets individual letters into words, words into sentences. Letters are the elementary particles of the written language – and thus of typography. They are figurative signs for sounds without content, parts which acquire a meaning and a value only if they are combined.
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