I first became aware of Oldřich Hlavsas’ work when adding a selection of the Czech journal Typografia to my archive. It was a name I was unfamiliar with and I had previously only been aware of Czech designers Ladislav Sutnar and Heinz Edelmann. Oldřich worked primarily in publication design and typography and played a major part in Czech graphic design history. He designed over 2000 book covers and published a series of his own books related to typography, Typographie (1976, 1981 and 1986). A recently published monograph about his work is out of print and his work is a lot of his design work remains undocumented online.
Typografia was published in Prague and Hlavsa was hired as the magazine’s artistic director in 1937. Whilst working for the magazine, Oldřich Hlavsa organised courses in typography at the Typografia Educational Association in Prague, designed logotypes and worked on various advertising campaigns. His statement typographic work and commercial graphic design, utilises letterforms, colour, and negative space to create timeless, modern cover designs which still look on-trend today.
“The point is to make a point”
— Oldrich Hlavsa, 1963
