Jan Tschichold — A Brief History of the Ampersand — 法國 巴黎

Jan Tschichold (1902-1974, typographer, theorician and teacher) published in 1953 Formenwandlungen der &-Zeichen, a short historical essay dealing with the successive designs of the ampersand glyph. This text is structured by a collection of 288 carefully selected and commented ampersands, which constitues a brief and concise introduction to the history of Western writing and typography. Long unavailable in English, this new translation is published in a facsimile version, faithful to the original design by the author. This SEP a new translation by Jean-Marie Clarke — with an afterword by Marc Smith is made available!

On the occasion of this translation, VTF and -zeug co-organised a type-design workshop and an international call for ampersand entries, in May 2017, in Paris and worldwide. This type-specimen shelters the selection of 288 ampersand glyphs, selected, sorted and organised. This festive publication witnesses vitality and wit of the contemporary type-design community.