Elizabeth Friedlander
German
1903-1984
Elizabeth Friedlander (née Friedländer) was born into
a cultured, affluent Jewish family in Berlin. After studying art
at the Berlin Academy she went to work as a graphic designer for
the elegant
magazine Die Dame; she was also asked to design a typeface
for Bauersche Giesserei in Frankfurt am Main, a most unusual commission
for a woman
at that time. Representatives of the firm explained to her, however,
that the usual practice of naming a type after the last name of its
designer could not happen in her case, because Friedländer was
a recognizably Jewish name. By the time her "Elizabeth" was
cut in 1938, Friedlander had already fled Nazi persecution in Germany,
going first to Italy, where she worked for Mondadori, and eventually
settling in England in 1939. After World War II she designed ornamental
borders for the Linotype Corporation and the "Friedlander Borders"
for Monotype. She was also a successful freelance designer for a
number
of advertising firms and for Penguin Publishers.
The Bauer Almanac
New York: Bauer Type Foundry, 1939
Set in Elizabeth Roman and Italic types designed by Elizabeth Friedlander
Graphic
Arts Division