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Fahrten- und Abenteuerbuch / Colin Ross. Berlin: Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1928
“In 1925 the German printer's trade union magazine Typographische Mitteilungen published a special issue that turned out to be a manifesto of New Typography. It was edited by a young professional typographer and calligraphist with the birth name of Johannes Tzschichhold – but in this magazine he appears under a slightly changed name: Iwan Tschichold (1902-1974). After he had seen works by Russian avant-garde artists at a Bauhaus exhibition Tschichold adopted not only a Russian-inpired graphic design style but a Russian first name. In that same year, ‘Iwan’ Tschichold also designed his first book for the Büchergilde Gutenberg that had been founded by the same printer's union in Leipzig. The green cover with its dynamic diagonal design constructed only with typographical material – letters, lines, dots – is obviously influenced by works such as El Lissitzky's famous book of Mayakovsky poems, Dlya golosa, from 1923. But interestingly, Tschichold doesn't use the ‘revolutionary’ colour red that is omnipresent in Russian avant-garde works, but a rather precious looking gold. And when you open the book you are dazzled by the shine of golden endpapers! (...) The inside of this Büchergilde book is pure early ‘new’ or ‘elemental typography’: asymmetrically arranged titles and bold, oversized page numbers, all in sans-serif. Photos and captions are placed to form a rhythmic visual pattern as in a constructivist painting”.
Felix Wiedler. “Colin Ross: das Fahrten- und Abenteuerbuch”. Book (design) stories. From new typography to swiss style: modernist book design in Germany and Switzerland 1925–1965 (and beyond), 2007 http://wiedler.ch/felix/books/story/28