Elizabeth Friedlander (1903–1984) worked across a range of media from brochures and patterns to calligraphy and clandestine publishing, but she is most known as the first woman to design a typeface.
Elizabeth Friedlander.
Born in Berlin, Elizabeth was forced to exchange Germany for Italy in 1936, then went through an unsuccessful attempt to apply for an American visa. She eventually lived in London, before retiring to Kinsale, Ireland.
Elizabeth typeface.
In 1933, major Frankfurt type foundry Bauersche Giesserei asked Friedlander to create a font for them. She produced a typeface but was unable to name it Friedlander, as she had wished, because it was a recognizably Jewish name. The typeface was finally released in 1939 under the name Elizabeth, after Friedlander had already left Germany to escape the Second World War. After Germany, Friedlander moved to Italy and later to London where she worked with Jan Tschichold at Penguin Books doing pattern designs. Friedlander’s most famous works are perhaps the classic volumes of the 1950s and 60s—she designed for publishers like Penguin, Reader’s Digest and Mills & Boon.
Prisma pattern for Penguin music scores designed by Elizabeth Friedlander, 1954. Paint on paper. Collection of University College Cork. Photo: Sam Moore.
Cover of Penguin’s Progress Eleven publicity booklet & in-house magazine designed by Elizabeth Friedlander, 1950. Collection of niversity College Cork. Photo: Sam Moore.
Söre Popitz (1896–1993) was a German graphic designer and painter primarily known for her work at Leipzig publishing house Otto Beyer in 1930s.
Söre Popitz, around 1924. Silver gelatin print. Image via Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
She studied at Bauhaus for two years and is often called the school's best known female graphic designer. Söre abandoned modernist principles in her own art, though she stayed faithful as a designer of extremely versatile and witty posters, brochures, and book covers.
Thügina advertisement created by Söre Popitz, 1925. Image via Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
Popitz first qualified as a graphic illustrator in her home town of Kiel. In 1917, she enrolled at the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts where she attended courses on book design, typography, and advertising graphics. In 1924, Popitz enrolled at the preliminary course in Bauhaus, obligatory for all new students. She attended classes taught by László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. The years after 1933 led Söre Popitz into a period of inner emigration. She continued to work as an advertising graphic designer for Verlag Otto Beyer and also painted for herself, producing numerous paintings of flowers.
Cover for die neue Linie magazine created by Söre Popitz, 1931. Image via Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
Cover for the brochure und die Frau... created by Söre Popitz, 1934. Image via Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.