Findings: The New Typography

Jan Tschichold (1902-1974) is the quintessential Modernist graphic designer. 
The first three elements in his theory The New Typography (1928) are decisive to his overall theory, they are:

1. Typography is shaped by functional requirements.
2. The aim of typography layout is communication which must appear in the shortest, 
simplest, most penetrating form.
3. For typography to serve social ends, its ingredients need internal organisation - (ordered content) as well as external organisation - (the typography material properly related).

Elaborated text, san- serif types, standardised paper sizes, asymmetric orthogonal layouts, and the rejection of anything extraneous, least of all decorative, to the purpose of the design was forcefully proposed. The New Typography has already exercised its influence on both contemporaries and on modern theories as a whole. 

My Thinking

Since the publishing of this theory, printing and design industry started to have standardization of paper size and margin system. Although experimental typographer claimed to reject any form of rules in designing type, but actually there is physical limitation in printing their product. Therefore it is challenging to totally reject all the typography disciplines unless they are producing the design project in independent/ small scale form, but not commercial offset print production.

However, the limitation is on the printing part, how if typography comes in another form of production such as digital typography? Somehow designers will face the problem as well in dealing with code and computers. Hence there is no really a way to escape from rules and regulation, what an innovation designer can to is to play and explore all the possibilities inside the binding of general rules.

Reference

Tschichold, J. (1928) The New Typography. United State of America: University of California Press Ltd.

Clarke, M. (2007) Verbalising the Visual: Translating Art and Design into Words. New York: AVA Publishing.