The concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) shaped 19th-century art movements and influenced several design schools of the era—including the Bauhaus, which brought the term into the modern age. The school's unstructured architectural designs and avant-garde furniture paved the way for fields such as fashion, graphic design, and painting. At the Bauhaus, disciplines drew inspiration from one another, blurring the boundaries between art and industry. When the school closed in 1933, however, many design projects were left unfinished.
To revive some of these interrupted Bauhaus design projects, Adobe has launched the "Hidden Treasures" initiative to recreate five typefaces originally designed by five of the school's masters: Joost Schmidt, Xanti Schawinsky, Reinhold Rossig, Carl Marx, and Alfred Arndt.
In collaboration with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Adobe selected five design students to reconstruct the lost typefaces using historical materials from the school's archives. Led by typography expert Erik Spiekermann, the project has already completed the restoration of two of these typefaces: one derived from Schmidt's designs and the other from Schawinsky's work.
Among them, the Joschmi typeface, inspired by Schmidt's designs, is perhaps the more iconic of the two. Based on just six letterforms found in the Bauhaus archives, Brazilian designer Flavia Zimbardi developed its digital version. The Xants typeface, derived from Schawinsky's work, features more curves and thinner strokes; its digital version was developed by designer Luca Pellegrini.
Translated by Collin Chen
This article was written by Romullo Baratto. The translation is powered by AI.
