From the Fifties by means of the Eighties, mammoths of journal design and artwork path walked the earth. Arguably the grandest of all of them was twen, artwork directed from 1959–1971 by Willy Fleckhaus. His orchestration of content material—phrase, kind, image, format—was nothing lower than symphonic. He was the maestro.
In postwar West Germany, twen‘s luminescence brightened up the artistic area in methods which are tough to measure. Now, a brand new ebook, twen [1959–1971] by Hans-Michael Koetzie, Serge Ricco and Stephane Darricau, produced by Bureau Brut, brings its inspiring legacy as soon as once more to the fore. Under are some pages that underscore the intelligence endemic to Fleckhaus’ creative, editorial typography and cinematic web page stream.
The next is a translation of a French essay by Hans-Michael Koetzle excerpted from twen [1959-1971] .
Essentially the most influential, and thus a very powerful, journal in postwar Germany was known as twen. It was printed from April 1959 to Might 1971 and, though it by no means offered tens of millions of copies like Stern (Hamburg) and Fast (Munich)—to call however two of essentially the most extensively learn publications within the early days of the Federal Republic—it did have real worldwide attain. It stays the one West German periodical to have attracted a readership not solely in Europe but additionally in America.
With its modern images and spectacular format, twen set a benchmark for editorial design and, it will appear, nonetheless evokes younger designers, typographers, artwork administrators and inventive varieties of all types at this time. Avenue and Nova wouldn’t have seen the sunshine of day with out twen.
… Artwork director Henry Wolf described it as “the final individualistic journal,” and David Hillman mentioned it was “like no different journal, previous or future.”
In 1964, Milton Glaser staged a significant twen exhibition at New York’s Faculty of Visible Arts, and 4 years later the journal was awarded a gold medal by the Artwork Administrators Membership of New York. Because the editorial of the July 1970 situation proudly introduced, this was the primary time a European journal had obtained such an accolade.
A brand new child on the block, twen (“teen”) was based within the late Fifties by two younger Cologne publishers, Adolf Theobald and Stephan Wolf. It began out as a “mere” complement to the scholar journal Pupil im Bild, which Theobald and his crew had been publishing since 1957. The purpose of this new venture was to succeed in past the campus to all varieties of younger folks between the ages of 20 and 30. The title was taken from the ready-to-wear clothes model Wormland, whose … Twen denims had been massively common on the time.
The title was authentic—a primary even for English-speaking nations—and a recent reminder of younger West Germans’ curiosity in america, lower than 15 years after the tip of the Second World Struggle. But, regardless of the very fact it coated jazz, literature, artwork, cinema, vogue and, at first, images, all subjects of curiosity to this explicit readership, twen was neither {a magazine} for younger folks nor a images journal, a cultural assessment or a conventional illustrated publication. It transcended all the same old classes and stood out not solely as {a magazine} that was brazen and provocative, with a penchant for the erotic, but additionally for its beneficiant and masterful format.
The primary situation hit the newsstands in April 1959 and was 104 pages lengthy with a 36.5 × 27 cm format (barely bigger than subsequent points, which had been all 33.5 × 26.5 cm). It was printed in rotogravure by the long-established printer and writer DuMont (Cologne), which assured not solely manufacturing high quality but additionally environment friendly nationwide distribution. In keeping with Stephan Wolf, the primary situation of twen offered out in a short time, not least due to the protection it obtained from the mainstream press.
(Editor’s Word: Fleckhaus invented the place of the “artwork director,” which didn’t but exist in Germany. He acquired the nickname of “Germany’s most costly pencil.” That is additional explored in Design, Revolt, Rainbow (Hartman Books), the primary complete monograph on Fleckhaus. It contains texts by Michael Koetzle and Carsten Wolff, each consultants on Fleckhaus’ work.)
