Poster | Universal Alphabet
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"Attempt of a new typeface" is the title of the text by Herbert Bayer in 1926 in the Bauhaus issue of the magazine Offset. The article is illustrated on page 399 with his design for a new "alphabet".
"Just as modern machines, architecture, and cinema are expressions of our modern era, so must typeface be," demands Bayer. Strict lowercase, simplicity, unity in construction, composition in the primary forms of square and circle – these are his demands. These guidelines shape many Bauhaus designs around the year 1926.
On the published sheet, two characters, the g and the k, are described as still unfinished. Bayer thus makes the design process visible.
Herbert Bayer's design is an idealization of simple construction and universal application. However, legibility was neglected; the typeface is more suitable for logos and individual words, but not for longer texts.
The universal typeface was used by Herbert Bayer in the 1960s for the logo he designed for the Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, as was also adopted by the Bauhaus shop. In this, the "a" and "r" are simplified once again, but the characters h, u, and s are taken from the then popular typeface Helvetica. For a more harmonious form and better legibility of the lettering, the inner angles of a and v are given indentations.
