Inge Druckrey - Teaching to See - A Short Visual Biography

I had the honor to interview Inge Druckrey for a small bio booklet for my Typographic Design class this fall semester at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. My Instructor, Fred Murrell, wrote a list of designers on the board to choose from, then had us design a small booklet that was inspired by their design philosophy. I had never heard of Inge Druckrey. Her work is amazing, but hard to find because she has chosen a life of art education. I was very delighted to come across a film about her called "Teaching to See" by Edward Tufte. My instructor was able to contact her through email and set up a email interview. A classmate and I came up with a few questions:

Dear Inge,
     Thank you for corresponding with our instructor Fred Murrell. We are very excited to learn more about you! Our names are Emily Lennon and Jenifer Wisler. We are Design students at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. In respect of your time we have just a few short questions for you.

1. When teaching your students about typography and design, do you prefer to they take the hands on paper to pen approach or start with the computer?

When a new tool comes around, you add it on to the old tools. So, you should be competent in hand-eye coordination and have good hand control beside being competent on the computer. As to the timing, I might use both tools parallel to each other or one after the other. But I want students to be competent in both. 

2. How has the German language influence your development of type and layout? Do you think it would be different had you grown up with a different language?

Writing and typography in the German language uses capital letters for the beginning of every noun. So, if you have a typeface with long ascenders and descenders, you need more leading. But no matter what your nationality is, as a trained designer you become sensitive to any typeface you have to work with.

3. We are looking forward to your book because we learned so much from your movie, can you tell us if it will be a continuation of teaching to see?

Not really. The book talks about the contributions of two designers and one calligrapher to type design and typography of the 20th and 21st century. But I am sure you will learn a lot.

 4. How has your experience as a woman in design changed over the years? What’s your secret to breaking into a male dominated industry and being respected for it? 

I do remember, when I applied for the teaching position at the Kansas City Art Institute around 1966. I made sure they knew that I was a woman. This tells me, that at the time I must have been worried about being accepted as a woman faculty. Also, when I taught at Yale, I was the second woman on the faculty at the Yale School of Art. Female students at Yale had only been accepted a few years earlier. But today there are no limits for women in design or any other field for that matter. You simply have to be competent.

5. In your video, “Teaching to See” you referred to Roman letters and reliefs as your influence and that they are pleasing to the eye. Can you please expand on that and tell us why over other type you prefer Roman letters?

Here is some misunderstanding. The Roman letter is the alphabet of the western world, in the same way that the Cyrillic letter is the national alphabet in Russia, or the Hebrew alphabet in Israel, or the chinese or japanese writing system in China and Japan. The term Roman is also used to distinguish regular type from italic type. So it is a bit confusing. But all typefaces we use in the western world as for example: Gothic faces as Futura, Univers, Helvetica, Syntax, Gill Sans or Egyptian or Slab Serif faces, which include Clarendon, Century Schoolbook, and others, or old style faces as Garamond, Bembo, Minion, or modern faces as Didot and Bodoni all go back in their capital letters to Roman stone inscriptions and in their lower case letters to the Humanist Script.

6. In the video you referred to a woodcut relief (pictured below) can you please give us the correct spelling of the artists name as well as what about the relief you find most compelling? 

The artist's name is Aristide Maillol. He was mainly a sculptor but also illustrator, in this case for the Cranach Presse in Weimar, Germany. The composition is absolutely right on. Everything holds together, there is nothing unnecessary. It is enjoyably for the eye to move around in the composition. I am repeating what I said in the movie. But sometimes it is hard to analyze all the reasons why it holds together. I will try a bit:

The drawing is tightly anchored on all four sides of the format, which results in an interesting negative area. The drawing uses very simple means, nearly all lines are of the same weight the only means of contrast is a doubling up of lines in the hair, the fingers of the right hand, the leafs, the double lines at the edge of the water, the heavier line of the border. The negative area defined by the edge of her back, head, arm and the top right corner of the format nicely echoes the negative area between the edge of the water and the edge of the bottom part of the format and so on. 

It would be a wonderful exercise for you to stare at this composition in order to begin to see more and more. You might turn it sideways, upside down, to see more of the abstract composition. Put it on your bedroom wall, so you see it first thing in the morning, when your eyes are fresh, or look at it reflected in a mirror. You have to trick your eyes to really see.

7. What are some techniques that could help students understand typography in new ways? For example some quick exercises.

I think you should find a book in your library with the title "Typography" by Emil Ruder. The publisher is Hastings House in New York. If your library does not have it, check on Amazon, you might find a used copy. Read and look at it very carefully, try to truly understand what the author has to say. It is a very good book, which offers you lots of fresh information regarding typography.

8. Do you know of any easily accessible resources where we could find examples of your work?

 I list a few books but it is not easy to find my work. 

"Geometry of Design, Studies in Proportion and Composition"
by Kimberly Elam, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2001


"The 20th Century Poster, Design of the Avant-Garde"
Abbeville Press, New York, 1984

"The Thames and Hudson Encyclopedia of Graphic Design and Designers"
Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1992

"Visual Puns in Design" 

by Eli Kince. Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1982 

9. Are you still teaching? What do you do in your spare time for enjoyment? 

No, I am retired since 2010. For enjoyment, I walk my dogs, do agility training with one of the dogs, read, work out at a gym, travel to Europe once every year, to do research, see friends and family, and enjoy the museums of Europe. 

Well, this took much longer than I thought but I hope you will get something out of it.

Fond regards, Inge