The Lifestory of Hermann Zapf
Since nobody wanted to hear my ideas in Germany, I had no choice but to go to the USA. People were more open to such new and unconventional things over there. The Americans still have something of their old pioneering spirit. In my lectures there I developed my ideas about computerized typesetting programs. My moment came when I was invited to speak to the students in the Carpenter Center at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1964.
That got the University of Texas in Austin interested too. They made me a very generous offer and offered to create a special professorship for me. The Governor made me an Honorary Citizen of Texas - which might have exempted me from taxes - and presented me with a huge flag of the State of Texas, which had once flown over the Capitol building in Austin. Moreover, Austin is a very attractive university town, and is nothing like the way one otherwise pictures Texan cities like Houston.
Back home I told my wife the whole story. She listened patiently. Then she said that was all fine and well, but she would never go to Texas. Unfortunately my wife had only seen Texas from the air, when we had once flown over those endless oil fields on our way to San Diego. So that was the end of my Texan dream.
Since the American plan had come to nothing and our house in Frankfurt had become too small - even though I had my studio in the old city gate building in Dreieichenhain, which dates from 1460 - we took the opportunity to move to Darmstadt in 1972.
Princess Margaret of Hessen had a plan to revive the tradition of the Ernst Ludwig Press, under the name "Prince Ludwig Press" in memory of her husband, who died in 1966. Dr. Dolf Sternberger was to be in charge of the literary part and I was to be responsible for equipment and printing. Unfortunately the project never got off the ground for want of funds. We had all known from the start that it would not generate any profits.
In 1976, the Rochester Institute of Technology asked me whether I would take over from Professor Alexander Lawson when he retired. They wanted to set up a special professorship for typographic computer programming, the first of its kind in the world. I taught there from 1977 until 1987, flying back and forth between Darmstadt and Rochester. In Rochester I got the chance to develop my ideas further, particularly once I had connentions with companies like IBM and Xerox through my students. I also learned a great deal from the computer specialists during our discussions, which often continued into the night.
In 1977 my friends Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and I founded "Design Processing International Inc." in New York. The aim was to develop programs for typographic structures based on a variable menu and for use by non-specialists. The company existed until 1986. After the death of Herb Lubalin, we started afresh, setting up "Zapf, Burns & Company" in New York in 1987.
Sadly in 1991 my partner Aaron Burns died of AIDS, which he had contracted from a blood transfusion during a heart bypass operation in 1982. He had been responsible for our marketing. To add to his troubles, two of our employees had stolen my ideas and started a company of their own shortly before his death. That was the last straw for Burns, and a terrible experience for both of us.
Of course it was not practical for me to run a company in the USA from Darmstadt. I couldn’t even take legal action but I didn’t want to move to New York. Anyone who has seen our house on the Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt will understand why. I put all the experience I had gathered in the USA into developing a new and very ambitious composition program for the improvement of typesetting quality. We called it the "hz program" (see Fig. 1). I developed it in conjunction with URW Software & Type GmbH in Hamburg. It is still not quite finished because we are forever trying to get new things out of the existing basic structure. Computer technology is developing at a breathtaking pace and it’s difficult to keep up.
That got the University of Texas in Austin interested too. They made me a very generous offer and offered to create a special professorship for me. The Governor made me an Honorary Citizen of Texas - which might have exempted me from taxes - and presented me with a huge flag of the State of Texas, which had once flown over the Capitol building in Austin. Moreover, Austin is a very attractive university town, and is nothing like the way one otherwise pictures Texan cities like Houston.
Back home I told my wife the whole story. She listened patiently. Then she said that was all fine and well, but she would never go to Texas. Unfortunately my wife had only seen Texas from the air, when we had once flown over those endless oil fields on our way to San Diego. So that was the end of my Texan dream.
Since the American plan had come to nothing and our house in Frankfurt had become too small - even though I had my studio in the old city gate building in Dreieichenhain, which dates from 1460 - we took the opportunity to move to Darmstadt in 1972.
Princess Margaret of Hessen had a plan to revive the tradition of the Ernst Ludwig Press, under the name "Prince Ludwig Press" in memory of her husband, who died in 1966. Dr. Dolf Sternberger was to be in charge of the literary part and I was to be responsible for equipment and printing. Unfortunately the project never got off the ground for want of funds. We had all known from the start that it would not generate any profits.
In 1976, the Rochester Institute of Technology asked me whether I would take over from Professor Alexander Lawson when he retired. They wanted to set up a special professorship for typographic computer programming, the first of its kind in the world. I taught there from 1977 until 1987, flying back and forth between Darmstadt and Rochester. In Rochester I got the chance to develop my ideas further, particularly once I had connentions with companies like IBM and Xerox through my students. I also learned a great deal from the computer specialists during our discussions, which often continued into the night.
In 1977 my friends Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and I founded "Design Processing International Inc." in New York. The aim was to develop programs for typographic structures based on a variable menu and for use by non-specialists. The company existed until 1986. After the death of Herb Lubalin, we started afresh, setting up "Zapf, Burns & Company" in New York in 1987.
Sadly in 1991 my partner Aaron Burns died of AIDS, which he had contracted from a blood transfusion during a heart bypass operation in 1982. He had been responsible for our marketing. To add to his troubles, two of our employees had stolen my ideas and started a company of their own shortly before his death. That was the last straw for Burns, and a terrible experience for both of us.
Of course it was not practical for me to run a company in the USA from Darmstadt. I couldn’t even take legal action but I didn’t want to move to New York. Anyone who has seen our house on the Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt will understand why. I put all the experience I had gathered in the USA into developing a new and very ambitious composition program for the improvement of typesetting quality. We called it the "hz program" (see Fig. 1). I developed it in conjunction with URW Software & Type GmbH in Hamburg. It is still not quite finished because we are forever trying to get new things out of the existing basic structure. Computer technology is developing at a breathtaking pace and it’s difficult to keep up.
Linotype
