It is a long time ago, my new alphabet: 1967 was the year of publication. In thirty years a lot has changed and is even difficult to recollect the motives why I ever designed it. Looking back it seems ridiculous. Basically I experimented with type and words already from 1955 onwards. I was intrigued both by the structural experiments of the De Stijl movements and by the purifying direction of the later Bauhaus in Dessau. In the sixties I became highly interested in visual structuralism, something that was in the air.

To me it resulted from working along typographic grids and trying to find the ultimate consequences of structuralism. Learning from architecture, I imagined a book or publication as a 3 dimensional product, where each position stood in a specific relation to any other position. A book is not a sum of single pages or double spreads, but a three-dimensional object. For a lecture I prepared in that period, I made special slides visualising my point of view; some of those I still keep as some sort of nostalgic token. Even type can be looked upon as a 3 dimensional object. All this occurred to me, with a vague notion of the bit-sphere in computers; I really didn't know too much about it.

In 1966, at the DRUPA (1). in Dasseldorf, the annual exhibition on print and paper, I attended the launch of 'Digisett', the first electronic typesetter by Hell.

Observing the results of this machine, and thinking about the way type was reproduced here, I became highly intrigued by this bit-technique. Typefaces drawn by hand and engraved in metal; then carted in an alloy of lead and softened by the many times it was used, had a very specific character and flavour. And here we saw a reproduction of that process, via the electronic brain of this machine, build up in little dots within a rigid grid.

It used more or less the principle of the old Jacquard textile machines, where each pattern is translated in a square grid and punched in a band of cardboard for reproduction. I saw the resemblance with the typefaces my grandmother embroided in little cross stiches on her embroidery canvas. From Kurt Weidemann I saw around this time his beautiful collection of 19th century text-canvasses. All in all I became very interested in all sorts of modular techniques to reproduce typefaces, such as through bricklaying and through tiles. I made many slides for my collection. It all fitted in my fascination for the cellular world; for that visual structuralism. Also an early book on the subject of computer typesetting, published in 1966, made me aware of the many difficulties that still had to be overcome.

Typefaces, reproduced by the Hell Digiset tried to look like century-old faces, but failed to do that as regards to those specIfic characteristics I mentioned before. If you studied the digital products through the magnifying glass, something odd could be seen. Small sizes, compared to bigger sizes, seemed all different; especially round shapes changed into completely different silhouettes. Only straight lines kept their form. The whole complex of visual contradictions, and the conflict between old conventions and new techniques, convinced me that possibly a time had arrived for different way of thinking. Possibly even a new typeface-system.This is how l arrived at my experiments. First all sorts of trials and experiments. After some time the offer to publish the results in the ‘Quarterprints' of Pieter Brattinga.

I decided that my typeface had to be constructed from straight lines and 45 degrees corners. Following my interest in the 3-dimensionality of the book, all letters should have an even width, whereby spacing between words should always be related to the width of an individual character. Caps are indicated by a line on top of the character and 'double' characters such as the 'm' or 'w' are formed by a line through the single 'n' and ‘v’. In this way a text not only
has horizontal accentuation but also a regular vertical pattern. It is clear that it needs some training to read it! To me it was also clear that the typeface was not fit for use, but that it was designed for the sake of discussion. Furthermore, I gave an example of integration of type and illustration. Digital thinking included this, in my opinion; we should do away with separate blocks for text and illustration. I was convinced — from the beginning—that my experiments could never tear down the barriers of conventions that guarded over the existing typeface tradition. One cannot simply bend an age-old development. Still, I thought it must be possible to start a sensible discussion on how to face the new, and revolutionary, electronic developments.

Well of course the discussion was short and not very effective. Nevertheless I got my chance to make my point and today, thirty years later, I still receive letters and requests regarding this experiment. The 'New Alphabet' was mostly misunderstood as a face to be read by the machine, like the OCR-B (2) on cheques.

Most critics who reviewed New Alphabet never saw my explanatory text accompanying the publication, and interpreted it from what they saw. Nevertheless, I do not blame them, because that is the risk of every visual experiment In retrospect it was a fascinating period which directed my work for a certain period afterwards. From there on I did for instance: posters with typefaces of similar nature; a symbol for Rotterdam; the logotype for Expo '70, the World's Fair in Osaka; a typeface for a series of museum catalogues; a typeface for an Olivetti-typewriter that never came on the market); a soft alphabet on request of Claes Oldenburg. And finally a postage stamp for the Dutch Postal Services. I collected all these results for an exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in 1978, accompanied by a catalogue-leaflet that was almost unreadable since I tried to integrate text and illustrations.

This was 1967. From that point in time a real revolution took place. Now type is a hype! Never before such an eruption of typeface-creativity has been seen. And all resulting from that magical digital thing, that miniaturizes by the day, and can be handled by almost everyone. The clicking mouse is running over his foampad. Before computer typesetting came into existence, one could count the international league of typedesigners at the fingers of two hands. Today, alone in Netherlands, the same number flourishes.

Strange is the fact that, while during the fifties and sixties much research was dedicated to the readability of type and typography, nowadays we don't hear anything about such research anymore. Also in this conference (3) nothing is heard about readability research. It is obviously outmoded! In the early days we were constantly kept informed about the results of tests with eyemarkers on individuals and groups; on reading-tests and text-recognition. It looked like an ongoing soap about the preference of type with and without serifs. Names like Zachrisson, Ovink, Tinker, Spencer, Vartabedian, Foster and Wendt were familiar in typeface and typography circles. Always there was that everlasting confusion between display and booktype. And, of course, there was always someone who took a point of view regarding the origin of type; was it writing or something else. Moving was the fight in words between the conservative Didot lovers and the modernist metrical promotors.

Well: the computer made the Didotpoints old fashioned. But what about readability? Did we finally reach the conclusion that the results of research added nothing to the profession? Or have we been overwhelmed by the uncheckable flood of type, and things we do with them? The production of print is increasing all the time. New machines for transmission of the printed word have been invented, as well as new machines for copying. A new era came in which almost everything is copied, over-copied, and digitally relayed by way of satellites. And upon arrival becomes copied again for fax-distribution. The final result often resembles a reheated week-old portion of airplane food, to be eaten in a pouring rainshower. And nobody protests for we have no problem in reading it. We accommodated ourselves completely. The need for readability research just faded away.

At the same time a large amount of new typefaces came over us. Many are based on classic types and classic conventions, but seldom they are better. Others are fun-characters from the pop-scene where the approach is much more free. Just as I saw in my dream in 1967, type and illustration have melted together in overall images. True enough: not based on the same principles, but nevertheless integrated. The influence of the autonomous two dimensional art is clearly visible. Text is no longer in the first place to be read, but first of all adds to the experience of the message. And the message is short-lived: it is there to zap-up, glance at it, and push away. Out of many images, one overall image is created by turning the pages of the magazines, switching the channels, or surfing the world wide web.

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CAT3