Graphic Design

Graphic design played an eminent role in every one of Schocken’s various enterprises.  Inspired by the geometrical style of the Dutch artist Mondrian, Schocken sketched the logo for his department stores, letterhead, and invoice slips. Final designs were then made by the architect Mendelsohn and the Bauhaus artist Moholy-Nagy, who also designed posters and advertisements for the Schocken chain.

The chief graphic designer of Schocken’s publishing house in Berlin was Max Müller, former publisher of The Socialist. Schocken’s books were much admired for their typography, book covers, and bindings. Müller’s expertise was particularly evident in the publication of multilingual books, which were highly challenging for typesetters and printers during this pre-computer era. When the Nazis ordered his arrest in 1943, Müller committed suicide.

After moving to Palestine and starting up his publishing house in Tel Aviv, Schocken hired the graphic designer Franziska Baruch to revive and design Hebrew fonts. Basing her work on the sixteenth-century Venetian printer Daniel Bomberg, Baruch designed a modern font that was later used for publishing one of Agnon’s books in Hebrew. She also designed the famous logo of the Haaretz newspaper, still in use today.