The Art of Hermann Zapf

“In 1967-1968, Hallmark made the film The Art of Hermann Zapf. I still think back to this big event with great pleasure, remembering my involvement in the movie business. Hallmark’s idea was to make an educational film that could be lent to art schools and television stations. It was an interesting project, but at the beginning it was very difficult. I was not familiar with the Hollywood language the movie people used, so I had to learn that first.

Frank Robinson lying on the floor with the camera ready for a frog view shot.

To this day, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse has kept the tools she used to cut Hesse Antiqua

Our cameraman, Frank Robinson, came from Hawaii. He was used to big outdoor scenes with professional models. He demonstrated his ideas with sweeping gestures, and spoke in his Polynesian accent about shooting and takes in connection with story boars, stills he wanted to include, etc. My God, very quickly I realized we had absolutely different conceptions about the film. I wanted no outdoor scenes at all, no expensive movie stars. I only wanted to show single letters, my paw manipulating a broad-edged pen, and close-ups to explain the movement of the pen in making letterforms. In addition, I wanted special close-ups to be shot through a glass on which I would write. If we turned the film during production, it would look as though I was writing on air. At once my friends at Hallmark had a new term for this: ›frog views‹. How could I explain my thoughts to a wild man from the film business? But the frog view idea persuaded him and suddenly he said: ‘Great, Hermann, let’s start tomorrow’.

To this day, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse has kept the tools she used to cut the Hesse Antiqua

I would like to add just one more detail about the making of the film. After long discussions and the help of a lot of alcohol, we started filming late at night. I was sitting at a slanted glass table with a hot spotlight in my neck. Frank Robinson was lying on the floor with the camera ready for a frog view shot. My task was to write beautiful letters with ink which dried as soon as the pen touched the slippery surface of an acetate sheet. Not an easy job at all, especially with a nervous cameraman at your feet. But with whiskey and many words of praise and encouragement toward the end, we all finished the film. It was a painful experience and I swore never to burn my fingers as a pseudo-Hollywood production manager again, but to stay with my humble pen and design alphabets.”

This text is an excerpt from “Alphabet Stories – A Chronicle of Technical Developments by Hermann Zapf”. Published by Mergenthaler Edition – Linotype GmbH, Germany in 2007.