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A typographic layout featuring the words “typographische monatsblätter” repeated in a mirrored, hourglass shape. The text shrinks towards the centre and expands again towards the bottom.

Make way for TM Research's mighty archive of typography journal covers!

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Date
22 October 2012

Yeah yeah, the 1960s and 1970s were great: The Beatles making every teenage girl across the nation swoon and the hippy movement making sure that rainbow colours were firmly “in” but I tell you what else was pretty great; the front covers of the Swiss typography journal Typographische Monatsblätter which are archived in their hundreds across their ridiculously stunning and all pretty comprehensive website.

Running for more than 70 years, the journal set out to showcase to the world the brilliance of Swiss typography and with the covers alone creating quite a stir with their sleek cutting-edge designs you can only imagine just how dreamy the inside content must have been.

Ranging from everything from bold, heavily contrasting numeric designs to the more subtle graphics (just check those hands out!), the archive is simply fantastic. Go on, indulge in some scrolling and trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

A black and white poster featuring large, fragmented 3D letters floating over a night scene of a busy city street. The letters are scattered across the dark sky, spelling “Typography” in a disjointed arrangement. At the bottom, a white border contains the text “TM”, “SGM”, “RSI” and “No 1”, with smaller German and French credits below.
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Typographische Monatsblätter: 1971 cover

A graphic print featuring a circular arrangement of numbers from 1 to 12, repeated in radiating lines. The numbers create a dense, rhythmic pattern that forms a textured white circle on a light grey background. Above the image, a block of German and French text provides publication details from December 1969.
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Typographische Monatsblätter: 1969 cover

A graphic design cover featuring a large, abstract white shape on a black background. Small black text in the bottom right corner reads “Typographische Monatsblätter” and lists dates from 1962.
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Typographische Monatsblätter: 1962 cover

A line drawing illustration of various hand gestures and sign language positions arranged in a grid. Text on the right reads “TM SGM RSI 1” and lists three publications in German and French.
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Typographische Monatsblätter: 1975 cover

An abstract graphic composition featuring overlapping dark grey shapes on a white background. Small, left-aligned text in the top corner includes the words “Typographische Monatsblätter” and the date “März Mars 1967”.
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Typographische Monatsblätter: 1967 cover

A typographic layout featuring the words “typographische monatsblätter” repeated in varying sizes. The text forms two mirrored, hourglass-like shapes that narrow towards the centre of the page.
Above

Typographische Monatsblätter: 1961 cover

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About the Author

Anya Lawrence

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