Jesse Simon – författare

From neoclassical monuments to neon storefronts, Berlin is filled with beautiful typography. Over the past few years, the Berlin Typography project has been photographing the city’s best examples of typography, both to celebrate the diversity of letterforms and to preserve its typographic heritage before the old signs of this rapidly changing city are removed and replaced. This book collects the best of these images and shows how walking through Berlin can be like a stroll through a living art gallery—if you’re willing to look. Complete with over 200 full-color illustrations, this book showcases the typographic richness of Berlin, including its elaborate, ostentatious shop- front signs, the non-commercial typography of public buildings such as libraries and universities, and the fantastic array of type styles used on street signs and in the city’s public transport system. The book also includes an introduction to the history of typography in Berlin as well as a look to its future. The book’s captions locate each image within the city. Perfect for graphic designers or lovers of Berlin, this mesmerizing book effortlessly illustrates the role typography plays in our experience of the city.

Made from prefabricated concrete panels, Plattenbauten rose from the ruins of Berlin, providing a quick and inexpensive solution to the severe housing shortage faced by the city after World War II. Although criticized in their day for their sterility and impersonal scale, they nonetheless became an integral part of the city. Drawn from his extensive investigations into Berlin’s urban landscape, Jesse Simon’s texts and photographs offer a convincing argument for the aesthetic and social value of buildings that were once described as “eyesores.” Focused on urban developments constructed between the 1950s and the early 1990s, the book is structured geographically, devoting equal attention to the former East and West. It includes more than 200 images filled with warm light and saturated hues, revealing a diversity of color and detail that may often be lost on the casual observer. It also illustrates how, despite vast differences in political ideologies, both East and West Berlin employed remarkably similar approaches to the creation of new urban spaces. For fans of Brutalism and Modernism, Plattenbau Berlin is both an engaging reconsideration of postwar urbanism, and a unique entry point for exploring Berlin’s history and architecture.