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Design history: Element was Max Bittroff's rational attempt to solve a dispute raging within German typography of the middle 20th century; the rivalry of two competing orthographies – blackletter or ‘gotisch’ versus roman or ‘antiqua’. While Rudolf Koch’s Peter Jessen Schrift was also an attempt to provide a synthesis between blackletter and roman styles, it was intended as a private press face. Element was released as a fully commercial face in four weights by a larger foundry, Bauer, which had a programme of modernized blackletter faces, such as Tannenberg, National and Gotenberg. The unfortunate association with nationalist politics nicknamed these types as 'jackboot grotesques'.

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picture: Konemann Pubs