Jan Tschichold, Karl Gerstner, and Josef Müller-Brockmann all have a similar goal to change the ways of typography but they differ by methods, these approaches can go from being experimental, accurate or in naturalistic form. As for Karl Gerstner, his goal to change typography is for type to be accurate in terms of sizes, value, space, etc. Jan Tschichold’s goal is to alter the old typography in a giving sense of beauty by using asymmetric formats instead of symmetric. Josef Müller-Brockmann uses a similar method from Karl by using grids but he goes for an experimental approach by using the negative space, manipulating the positions of its form and color. I will be discussing each one of the three designers mentioned, by its function and inspirations. 

Starting with Karl Gerstner, he developed a diagram called ‘the morphological box of the typo-gram’ that follows with the terminology of Fritz Zwicky and uses it to determine the accuracy of the type and contains criteria such as color, value, space, weight, etc. It’s more of a scientific method rather than for design. According to the article, ‘Designing Programmes’, Karl stated, “It contains the criteria—the parameters on the left, the relative components on the right—following which marks and signs are to be designed from letters.” While this method was partially capable of aiding its assigned placement and analyzing the programme, Karl would pick some elements in the diagram and combine it to create the characteristics of the type because the importance of typography is for text to be readable. 

Looking at Josef Müller-Brockmann work, he uses a similar method from Karl by using grids but as I stated in my introduction, he was very experimental in using types and elements that were irrational and chaotic. Bring it under his control by manipulating positive and negative space. He also featured his philosophy about grid and design in his article, he stated, “The designer’s work should have the clearly intelligible, objective, functional, and aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking.” To understand how type is represented, Josef uses logical resources and uses it towards his advantage to create not only a sense of characteristics but an essential form of communication.

Lastly, Jan Tschichold differs from the old methods of typography because his approach was for his type to have a nature or best to describe, ‘beauty’. He uses an asymmetrical method for type to be produced at its purest form. According to his article, ‘The New Typography,’ stated, “Asymmetry is the rhythmic expression of functional design. In addition to being more logical, asymmetry has the advantage that its complete appearance is far more optically effective than symmetry.” Apart from symmetrical typography, Jan describes the asymmetric typography to be more effective to create his own ‘beauty’ type because it gives him a more natural order and it’s more flexible for his design.