L’écriture décorative d’Alfred Erdmann, the research project of Juliette Ogier
@ographique ,
@anrt_type @ensadnancy 2023–2025
“Decorative writing should be taught in all schools for general education” Alfred Erdmann, 1922.
Alfred Erdmann (1872–1966) attended Anton Seder’s classes at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg before working in Paris and teaching in Mainz for a few years. After these experiences, he returned to the School of Decorative Arts as a professor of graphic arts in 1902, where he taught for nearly 30 years.
With a passion for drawing, Erdmann experimented in various artistic fields such as painting, pattern design, furniture creation, as well as lettering and its arrangement. Inspired by the works of Edward Johnston and Rudolf von Larisch, he consolidated his research and personal approach alongside Adolphe A. Braun, in his book titled Decorative Writing and Arrangement of Lettering published in England in 1922 and reissued three years later. His goal was to restore value and importance to artistic writing and decorative lettering by making them accessible to a wide audience, from students to craftsmen, printers, and artists.
Through the exploration of Erdmann’s unpublished archives, deposited in 2023 at the ANRT, this research aims to study the genesis of his work, as well as to examine and invest in his models of writing and teaching. It also commits to designing effective means of classifying, preserving, and presenting these valuable archives, thus highlighting Erdmann’s pioneering role in the renewal of graphic arts and typography in the Alsace context at the beginning of the 20th century.
Furthermore, the development of digital adaptations of these models of writing raises questions regarding the transposition of tools from that era, such as “Even-stroke” pens producing monolinear strokes with rounded ends. Similarly, lettering practice, designed for a specific surface and conceived as a static image, must now meet the requirements of contemporary typography, where each glyph must adapt to various contexts.
French text in the first comment.
The presentation (FR) is now online: anrt-nancy.fr
