Whitehot Recommends: Die Fläche by Letterform Archive

Die Fläche, cover.

By WM January 15, 2024

From the press release:

Die Fläche (Facsimile Edition): Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 with essays by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan
Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

One of the first and most ambitious modern graphic design periodicals, Die Fläche (German for The Surface) was launched in 1902 by luminaries of the Vienna Secession art movement, famed Wiener Werkstätte designers, and their students. Across fourteen colorful issues featuring work by over 100 creators—around a third of them women—an explosion of design methods, teaching ideas, and visual forms heralded a break from nineteenth-century conventions. With an aim to resurface every facet of modern life—from the smallest bookmark to the urban streetscape— Die Fläche introduced a vocabulary of expressive flatness that remains powerfully with us today. Off the beaten paths of art and design history, Die Fläche holds countless surprises for present-day viewers. Due to its scarcity, even many enthusiasts of “Vienna 1900” have never been able to explore its pages. This complete reproduction of Die Fläche—the first in a series of facsimiles from Letterform Archive—offers unparalleled access to this remarkable work, presenting and contextualizing it for a wide audience for the first time. WM