Bauhaus vs The New Typography

Bauhaus is the cross-discipline counterpart of The New Typography — the Bauhaus workshop produced the New Typography programme.

Bauhaus Building, Dessau — Bauhaus

Bauhaus

The German school that fused art, craft, and industry into a functional modernism — clean geometry, flat roofs, and 'form follows function' applied to the whole designed world.

  • Rejection of applied ornament; function expressed as form
  • Clean rectilinear geometry and flat roofs
  • Glass curtain walls and ribbon windows
  • Honest, industrial materials
  • Unity of art, craft, and mass production
Full Bauhaus guide →
Original specimen in the New Typography style (after Tschichold)

The New Typography

The rigorous modernist program codified by Jan Tschichold — asymmetric layouts, sans-serif type, and the functional grid presented not as art but as a rational set of rules for clear, efficient communication.

  • Asymmetric, left-aligned layout replacing centered composition
  • Sans-serif (grotesque) type as the modern standard
  • Functional grid where every element earns its place
  • Active white space and rules directing the eye
  • Standardized formats and integration of photography
Full The New Typography guide →

At a glance

BauhausThe New Typography
Era1919–19331925–1935
DisciplineArchitectureGraphic Design
RegionGermanyGermany, Switzerland
FamilyModernismModernism, Typography
Formal traitsgeometric, minimal, functional, unornamentedasymmetric, sans-serif, grid-based, functional

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