Chicago modernism & the Ludlow Typograph : Douglas C. McMurtrie and Robert Hunter Middleton at work / Paul F. Gehl

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gehl, Paul F., author.

Contributor:

Opifex (Firm), active 2020, publisher.

Oak Knoll Press, printer.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

McMurtrie, Douglas C. (Douglas Crawford), 1888-1944.

McMurtrie, Douglas C.

Middleton, R. Hunter (Robert Hunter), 1898-1985.

Middleton, R. Hunter.

Ludlow Typograph Co.

Society of Typographic Arts (Chicago, Ill.).

27 Chicago Designers (Organization).

Type designers--Illinois--Chicago.

Type designers.

Type and type-founding--Illinois--Chicago.

Type and type-founding.

Graphic design (Typography)--History--20th century.

Graphic design (Typography).

Design--History--20th century.

Design.

Modernism (Art).

Advertising--Type and type-founding.

Advertising.

Chicago (Ill.)--History--20th century.

Chicago (Ill.).

Illinois--Chicago.

Genre:

History.

Type specimens.

Physical Description:

vii, [3], 127, [1] pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm

Distribution:

New Castle DE : Distributed outside Australia and New Zealand by Oak Knoll Press

Other Title:

Chicago modernism and the Ludlow Typograph

Place of Publication:

Newton, NSW, Australia : Opifex, 2020.

Summary:

"This is the first book to provide a narrative account of type design in Chicago during the years 1925-50, when American typographers and graphic artists confronted the arrival of European modernism. Robert Hunter Middleton and Douglas McMurtrie were prominent in the period and spoke for Chicago in the national debates. Neither man was a Chicago native yet both worked for the Ludlow Typo­graph Co., a manufacturer of type­setting machinery. As Paul Gehl examines their years of working side by side, it be­comes clear that differing experiences of the city and its design world created two different modernisms that can be traced in the beautiful types on which they collaborated, Middleton as artist and McMurtrie as 'promotional man extraordinary'. Gehl shows how the new typography--championed loudly by McMurtrie and practised quietly by Middleton--took root in Chicago a decade before the arrival of the New Bauhaus, usually described as the singular turning point in Chicago design history. The 'Bauhaus Boys', as Chicagoans called them, introduced new ideas, but the seeds of their success were sown in the work of Ludlow's two modernist pioneers."--Publisher's description.

Contents:

In the Metropolis of printing

Type markets and type men

McMurtrie kicks off a Modernist campaign

McMurtrie's first Modernist claims, presented in Some modern Ludlow typefaces

Professional modernism

Two men, two missions

Middleton speaks up

Not just Mutt and Jeff

Some thoughts on the literature.

Notes:

Includes color reproduction of the type specimen book: Some modern Ludlow typefaces / Douglas C. McMurtrie. [Chicago, Illinois] : [Ludlow Typograph Company], [1929].

Includes bibliographical references.

Contains:

Facsimile of: McMurtrie, Douglas C. (Douglas Crawford), 1888-1944. Some modern Ludlow typefaces.

ISBN:

9780648680710

0648680711

OCLC:

1225150465