Volume 19–4 (Low Res).pdf

venerable punchcutter, and to be cast at the company's
foundry. Van Krimpen eagerly accepted this
commission and quickly produced trial drawings
for the new type. These were approved and followed
up in record time with a set of finished renderings,
and handed over to Radisch, who produced punches
for the hand-set type. In just a little more than a
year from his first meeting with Van Krimpen, Dr.
Enschede had his font of type.
This quick turnaround was necessary because
Dr. Enschede intended to use the new type for setting
all the official entries for an industrial design exhibition
to be held in Paris in 1925. He rightfully felt that
this would provide both an excellent opportunity
to announce the release and the perfect venue to gain
maximum European market exposure. The finished
design was called Lutetia, the Roman name for the
city of Paris, and its release in Paris succeeded in fulfilling
Enschede's hopes.
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ALMOST UNANIMOUS APPROVAL
Stanley Morison, the typographic director of Monotype,
reviewed the new face in a 1928 issue of The
Fleuron, praising Van Krimpen's work as being fresh
and original at a time when most new designs were
either copies or revivals of older work. Dr. Enschede
was apparently equally pleased with the type design
because he hired Van Krimpen to create additional
typefaces for his company.
But not everybody agreed with Morison and Dr.
Enschede. Walter Tracy, the eminent British typophile
and former head of type design for the British
Linotype Company, was almost gleeful in his criticism
of Lutetia. He felt that numerous letters were
out of proportion, poorly rendered or inappropriate
for the style of the face. Tracy also wrote that the
alternative swash characters in the italic "prettify
the text only at the expense of comfortable reading!'
But most agreed that Lutetia was a refreshing
new addition to the typographic spectrum. It earned
Van Krimpen esteem as a type designer, and the
types he created during the following 25 years were
received with the greatest of respect.
A CLOSE WORKING RELATIONSHIP
In addition to creating new types for Enschede, Van
Krimpen was responsible for designing the specimen
sheets publicizing the printing house's historic and
contemporary typefaces. He quickly earned , an international
reputation as a result of this work, which
brought him additional projects at Enschede and the
beginnings of a substantial freelance business. Over
the years the relationship between Dr. Enschede and
Van Krimpen grew from that of employer/employee
into a friendship of deep mutual respect and admiration,
and Van Krimpen remained associated with the
Enschede printing house until his death in 1958.
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