In 1929 the Condé Nast publishing group brought Russian-born Mehemed Fehmy Agha—who had been working for the German edition of Vogue magazine—to America as art director for House & Garden, Vanity Fair, and the senior edition of Vogue.

1929年，康泰纳仕(CondéNast)出版集团将出生于俄罗斯的Mehemed Fehmy Agha(曾为德国版《 Vogue 》杂志工作的人)带到美国，担任House＆Garden，Vanity Fair和Vogue的高级版的艺术总监。

Considered avant-garde at the time, Agha introduced sans-serif typefaces, the practice of bleeding photos off the page, and first the use of duotone images (black-and-white photos printed in two colors) followed by the first full-color photograph to grace Vogue magazine in 1932. He was also the first to view publications as a series of spreads—what we tend to redundantly refer to as “double page spreads”—instead of a series of individual pages.

Agha当时被认为是前卫的，它引入了sans-serif字体，将照片从页面上渗出的做法，首先使用了duotone图像(以两种颜色打印的黑白照片)，然后是第一个全彩色这是1932年给Vogue杂志拍摄的照片。他还是第一个将出版物视为一系列价差的人，而不是一系列单独的页面，而我们通常将其称为“双页价差”。

Aside from the innovations Agha is known for today, it was his first attempt to inject European design sensibilities into an American publication that proved to be his most controversial, and shortest-lived.

除了Agha如今闻名的创新之外，这是他首次尝试将欧洲的设计敏感性注入美国出版物，这被证明是他最有争议且寿命最短的出版物。

本实验 (The experiment)

In the early months of his new role with Condé Nast, Agha and Vanity Fair made type history with the introduction of Paul Renner’s new sans serif typeface, Futura. But the move away from the more conventional serif style wasn’t the biggest change. Agha, additionally, made the editorial resolution to eliminate all capital letters from headlines on columns and feature articles—a decision that supporters of the Bauhaus movement applauded.

在与康泰纳仕(CondéNast)一起担任新职务的最初几个月，阿格(Agha)和名利场(Vanity Fair)通过引入保罗·雷纳(Paul Renner)的新无衬线字体Futura创造了字体历史。 但是，从更传统的衬线样式转变并不是最大的改变。 此外，阿格哈(Agha)做出了编辑性决议，从专栏和专题文章的标题中删除了所有大写字母，这一决定得到了包豪斯运动的支持者的赞赏。

The idea to use only lowercase letters for a premier publication was quite controversial, while at the same time expressing the height of Modernism in typography. Even more impressive was Agha’s ability to convince some of the most powerful names in publishing to challenge conventions.

在首屈一指的出版物中只使用小写字母的想法引起了很大争议，同时表达了现代主义在印刷术中的高度发展。 更令人印象深刻的是，阿哈(Agha)能够说服出版业中一些最有力的名字来挑战公约。

All lowercase typography was introduced in Europe by the Bauhaus shortly after WWI and slowly made its way west until it graced the pages of Vanity Fair. The movement initiated by the Bauhaus became known as New Typography, and it brought design to the forefront of the avant-garde in Europe; but the concept had primarily applied to large display type only. Agha was the first to attempt a full-scale editorial style shift.

第一次世界大战后不久，包豪斯(Bauhaus)在欧洲引入了所有小写字体，并逐渐向西移动，直至成为名利场(Vanity Fair)的封面。 包豪斯(Bauhaus)发起的机芯被称为“新版式”，将设计带到了欧洲前卫的最前沿。 但是该概念主要仅适用于大型显示​​类型。 Agha是第一个尝试全面改变编辑风格的人。

Shortly before Vanity Fair’s participation, designer Jan Tschichold defined guidelines for the movement in his landmark book Die Neue Typographie (The New Typography) in 1928, and his methods were adapted throughout Europe almost overnight. Tschichold’s ideas were reinforced years later by Herbert Bayer in his book The Bauhaus 1919–1931 when he expressed a profound idea behind the movement: “Why should we write and print with two alphabets? Both a large ‘a’ and a small sign are not necessary to indicate one single sound…We do not speak a capital A and a small ‘a.’”

在Vanity Fair参加展览前不久，设计师Jan Tschichold在他的地标性著作《新 印刷术 》( Die Neue Typographie ，新印刷术)中为运动定义了指导方针，他的方法几乎在一夜之间被整个欧洲采用。 几年后，Tschichold的思想得到了赫伯特·拜耳(Herbert Bayer)在他的著作《包豪斯1919– 1931年》中的支持，当时他表达了这一运动背后的深刻思想：“为什么我们要用两个字母书写和打印？ 大号“ a”和小号都不必表示一个单一的声音……我们不会说大写字母“ A”和小号“ a”。”

The American “lowercase experiment” helped visually define Vanity Fair as a progressive force in American publishing, and because it can be argued that all lowercase typography has the opposite effect of setting type in all caps—a preferred style for defining emphasis—the experiment was effective in bringing a simpler degree of elegance to an already elegant magazine.

美国的“小写字母实验”从视觉上帮助将《名利场 》定义为美国出版业的一支进步力量，并且因为可以说所有小写字母的排版都对所有大写字母设置类型(定义重点的首选样式)产生了相反的影响，因此有效地为本来就优雅的杂志带来了更简单的优雅。

But by the March 1930 issue—just five issues later—capital letters reappeared along with the full-page editorial “A Note on Typography” explaining the reverse decision and reasons for returning to the norm. Such an explanation in design policy was a first in American publishing. The following are excerpts from their editorial presenting the pros and cons of capital letters in titles:

但是到了1930年3月，仅五个问题之后，大写字母又出现在整页社论《 印刷术注释 》中，解释了相反的决定和回归规范的原因。 设计政策中的这种解释是美国出版界的首次。 以下是他们社论的摘录，标题中以大写字母表示了正反两面：

印刷注意事项 (A Note on Typography)

“Vanity Fair has for the past several months omitted capital letters in the titles and subtitles of its articles and illustrations. The hawk-eyed reader will note that this issue of Vanity Fair returns to capital letters. Posterity anyway will be grateful for a review of the considerations that have led Vanity Fair, first to dispense with capital letters in its headings and now, after a trial period of five issues, to return to them.

在过去的几个月中， “名利场”在其文章和插图的标题和副标题中都省略了大写字母。 眼花reader乱的读者会注意到，本期《 名利场》重返大写字母。 无论如何，后代将不胜感激，回顾了导致《名利场》所考虑的因素，首先取消了标题中的大写字母，现在经过5期的试用期后又返回给它们。

“In using, and continuing to use, the new typography, Vanity Fair believes that it knows very well what it is doing. In modifying one of the conventions of the new typography by returning to the use of capital letters in titles, it is obeying considerations that outlast any mere ‘revolution in style.’

“在使用并继续使用新版式时， Vanity Fair相信自己非常了解自己在做什么。 在返回标题时使用大写字母来修改新字体的一种约定时，它遵循的考虑要比任何“样式的改变”都要持久。

“A title set entirely in small letters is unquestionably more attractive than one beginning with a capital or with every word beginning with a capital, but, at the present time, it is also unquestionably harder to read because the eye of the reader is not yet educated to it. The issue is thus one between attractiveness and legibility, or between form and content, and Vanity Fair, not wishing to undertake a campaign of education casts its vote by returning to the use of capital letters in titles, to legibility, and to the cause of content above form.”

“毫无疑问，一个完全用小写字母开头的标题比以大写字母开头或每个单词以大写字母开头的标题更具吸引力，但是，目前，它无疑也更难阅读，因为读者的眼光还没有受过教育。 因此，问题是吸引力和可读性之间，还是形式和内容之间的问题，并且不愿进行教育运动的名利场投票通过使用标题中的大写字母，易读性和原因来投票。内容高于表格。”

阿哈的遗产 (Agha’s Legacy)

Agha brought the brilliance of European avant-garde experimentation to Condé Nast’s flagship publications. Particularly Vanity Fair which, under his direction, would become one of the most influential arts and letters magazines of the era. He stayed with Condé Nast until 1943, later becoming a highly sought-after publishing consultant in addition to terms as president of both the Art Directors Club (1935) and AIGA (1953–55). His pioneering implementation of full-color/full-coverage artwork ultimately led to his identification as the first modern art director in America.

阿哈(Agha)将欧洲前卫实验的光辉带入了康泰纳仕(CondéNast)的旗舰出版物。 特别是《名利场》 ，在他的指导下，它将成为该时代最有影响力的艺术和文学杂志之一。 他留在康泰纳仕(CondéNast)直到1943年，之后成为艺术总监俱乐部(1935)和AIGA(1953–55)的总裁，后来成为备受追捧的出版顾问。 他对全色/全覆盖艺术品的开创性实施最终使他成为美国第一位现代艺术总监。

But his implementation, and subsequent retraction, of this short-lived modern typography experiment certainly left a strange footnote to his legacy.

但是，对于这个短暂的现代版式实验，他的实现以及后来的撤消无疑为他的遗产留下了一个奇怪的脚注。

Vanity Fair’s “A Note on Typography” would become a prime example of how typography and graphic design can be discussed on a public stage. The essay went as far as tracing the Roman origins of capital letters and development of the Carolingian miniscule, and attempted to define the role of an editorial publication in modern society, while at the same time somehow mocking the general public as uncultured and unprepared for such a revolutionary (and superior) shift in style and taste.

Vanity Fair的 “版式说明”将成为如何在公共舞台上讨论版式和图形设计的主要示例。 这篇文章可以追溯到罗马大写字母的起源和加洛林式微缩字体的发展，并试图定义社论出版物在现代社会中的作用，同时又以某种方式嘲笑普通民众，因为他们没有文化素养并且没有为此做好准备风格和品味的革命性(和卓越)转变。

Moreover, “A Note on Typography” is a unique historical record of the introduction of design considerations to the public. Agha’s lowercase experiment may not have had a lasting effect on the publication, but the aftermath holds a key place in typographic legend.

此外，“印刷注意事项”是向公众介绍设计注意事项的独特历史记录。 阿哈(Agha)的小写实验可能不会对该出版物产生持久影响，但是后果在印刷传奇中占有重要地位。

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