Zero: Hans Schleger--a Life of Design

Visible Language, 2002 by Banks, Colin

Interesting also because he was invited to the Chicago Institute of Design by Serge Chermeyeff, another 4migre who had spent a long time in transit in London. With the shadow of its founder Moholy-- Nagy behind them and with Mies van der Rohe, Konrad Wachsmann and Hugo Weber also on the payrole, it must have felt like the reincarnation of European modernism had taken root there.

The words of the late Lord Reilly (Director of the UK Design Council) sum him up: Reilly called him "The master of the simple statement." Another commentator said, "he seems to have a quite extraordinary capacity for letting problems evolve their own solutions." Half true, but Reilly would have none of it, "Solutions do not evolve on their own. They are arrived at only after a proper process of analysis and synthesis. The fact that these labors are not visible in the final result is the measure of Schleger's mastery of his job and of himself."

Hans Schleger born in Prussia 1898, died England 1978.

The book is skillfully designed and detailed, well produced, and good value.

Colin Banks is a life-time typophile and long-time member of Visible Language's advisory board. As book review editor for the journal he critiques new titles.