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Kombinations-Schrift, 1926–1928

Bauhaus Stencil Lettering System
Image from MoMA

Albers (1886-1976) was both a student and a teacher at the Bauhaus. Principally an abstract painter, Albers also was a designer and typographer.

His Kombinationschrift alphabet was a modular lettering system based upon 10 basic shapes derived from a circle and a square. it was designed to be efficient—both easy to learn and inexpensive to produce.

The result was not a legible as [for example] Bayer’s [Bauhaus typeface from 1925] but the idea of modularity was in line with the school philosophy of creating streamlined objects for mass production.

The radical constructivist designs we now immediately connect with Bauhaus were only carried out in drafts, drawings and lettering, not as commercial typefaces. → Designhistory.org | Bauhaus Type

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3. Type History
3.3. Bauhaus