Fritz Kredel

Fritz Kredel (1900-1973) began his graphic education as an art student. In the early 1920s he studied with Rudolf Koch, a type designer for Gebr. Klingspor in Offenbach, becoming Koch's assistant both at the foundry and at the Offenbach technical school, where he taught graphic design and developed his skills as a woodcut artist. The Klingspor foundry provided Kredel with pearwood for his craft, the same they stocked for making wooden type. After Koch's death in 1934, Kredel moved to Frankfurt and set up a studio in the Stadel Museum, surrounded by a circle of artists interested in typography, illustration and graphic design. In 1936, the same year he won a gold medal for his work at the Paris salon, Fritz Kredel fled Germany, moving with his family first to rural Austria, and then, with the help of Melbert Cary, to New York in 1938. In America, Kredel illustrated a number of volumes for George Macy's Limited Editions Club and established himself as an illustrator, teacher and active typophile.