Jaroslav Benda 1882–1970 Typographic designs and letterformsAcademy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague

If we Czechs want to show off our type design history, we might reach first for Vojtěch Preissig, who was the first to localize imported typefaces for Czechoslovakia, or perhaps for Ladislav Sutnar, who established the rules of new elementary typography and functionalist graphic design, or we would literally swear by Oldřich Menhart, whose original manuscript forms the very bedrock of much of our tradition. But Czech type culture has also been long influenced and deeply shaped by an incredibly hard-working man – Jaroslav Benda! He was an important pillar who stood at the beginnings of contemporary Czech typography. Jaroslav Benda is one of the key figures in the history of Czech typography. He was an influencer who greatly inspired generations of type designers to come. The book represents an historic first attempt to exhaustively capture his typographic work. There wasn’t a single professional publication about him, until now.