Become a co-publisher of the English version of the book Jaroslav Benda 1882—1970 and support it on Kickstarter

Become a co-publisher of the English version of the book Jaroslav Benda 1882—1970 and support it on Kickstarter.

 Help us fundraise - $ 36,000 – to publish the English version of the book Jaroslav Benda 1882–1970: Typographic designs and letterforms!

https://www.jaroslavbendabook.com/

The Kickstarter campaign:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783759658/jaroslav-benda-18821970-typographic-designs-and-letterforms?ref=discovery&term=benda

 A Kickstarter campaign is currently underway to help raise € 36,000 for the publication of an English version of the book Jaroslav Benda 1882-1970 dedicated to one of the most significant Czech typographers. Jaroslav Benda is one of the most important creators in Czech typographic history. As an artist, he educated and inspired generations of Czech typographers. His work influences and surrounds us to this day. The book historically represents the first attempt to capture Benda's life's work and present his tremendous typographic realizations.

 The book, compiled by Petra Dočekalová and published by the UMPRUM Publishing House, currently is having great success with the Czech audience. Among other things, it won the award for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year competition. It gained a lot of attention from foreign audiences, by achieving fantastic success after a lecture at the TypeCon conference in Minneapolis, USA, and at the AtypI conference in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2019.

 Based on great interest and positive feedback, the authors decided to publish the book in English to reach readers abroad, using the Kickstarter platform!

 Kickstarter campaign for English Edition 2021 information:

Start: xxxxx
Lenght: 35 days
Goal: 36.000 USD

Main rewards for backers:


• Standard and Special English edition of the Jaroslav Benda 1882––1970 book
• Set of silkscreen postcards featuring Jaroslav Benda’s punch cuts for Jan Laichter publishing house
• Wooden tree toy, a replica of Benda’s original tree toy made for a toy collection for Artěl
• Original book designed by Jaroslav Benda carefully selected from the author’s collection of Benda’s artworks
• Benda’s TYPE WALK in Prague! We’ll guide you to the places that still carry Benda’s signs.

Scheduled release of the book: 2/2 2021

Book content

The book, Jaroslav Benda 1882–1970, Typographic designs and letterforms, represents an historic first attempt to exhaustively capture the typographic work of the versatile Czech artist and type designer Jaroslav Benda. Its first part briefly outlines his personal and artistic development, while the second part, in five subchapters, characterizes it on the basis of numerous examples of his handwritten letterings and classifies it on the basis of dominant similarities with typographic categories in four main groups: Sans-serif letterforms, serif letterforms, calligraphic and freehand letterforms, and finally typeface designs. The transformations of their expression are followed from the beginning to the end of Benda’s work, not only on the basis of common letterform design on paper, but also in less-used materials such as metal, stone and glass. The basis for capturing the character of Benda’s letterforms was created both by the authors of the collection of works in which Benda applied his typographic skill, as well as a number of unique artistic types in use they managed to find. In the conclusion of the book, the authors attempt to evaluate Benda’s typographical work with regard to the present, and reflect upon the meaning of the contemporary search for the “national character” of letterforms. The book concludes the overview of Benda’s life in dates and a highly valuable inventory of his typographic work, which is reproduced here to the extent possible.

Book specifications (imprint)

Author: Petra Dočekalová et al.
Concept: Tomáš Brousil, Petra Dočekalová, Radek Sidun, Jaroslav Tvrdoň
Editor: Petra Dočekalová
Texts: Tomáš Brousil, Petra Dočekalová, Karel Haloun, Šárka Šilarová, Jaroslav Tvrdoň, Lucie Urbánková
Review: Jan Solpera
Special collaboration: Otakar Karlas, Lucie Urbánková
Translation: Douglas Arellanes, Elizabeth Walsh-Spáčilová
Graphic design: Radek Sidun

Publisher: Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, UMPRUM

For more details contact:

 MgA. Petra Dočekalová, PhD. - Main contact
petra.typo@gmail.com, 00420 728 289 981

doc. MgA. Radek Sidun
radek@typo.cz, 00420 608 479 184

 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, UMPRUM. Jana Palacha 80, 116 93 Prague 1, Czech Republic, Europe.