Typofix

In the former GDR, we had (almost) no stickers but lots of scratch-off letters called »Typofix« . These letters placed on a transparent film could placed onto a sheet of paper and then scratched off with a ballpoint pen. The result were tiny, often damaged, black letters onto paper.

The Typofix letters were available in different fonts and sizes. In addition to the letters, there were countless other motifs, ornaments and pictograms. The Typofix foils were produced by Grafischer Spezialbetrieb Saalfeld. A company that disappeared with the fall of the GDR.

Years ago I remembered my GDR collectibles and started to add the forgotten Typofix series to my own graphic collection, also to do something more with them than the familiar rubbing off. I wanted them to be big because the small and detailed original motifs were never really transferred perfectly when I scratched them off, which always annoyed me.

At Christmas 2019, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I started the »Typofix« project in the form of an edition of screen-printed posters and cards. Since then, a new edition has been published every year.