Elizabeth Friedländer was born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany in 1903, immigrating to Italy in 1936 and then to England due to the rise of Nazism. Friedländer produced bookwork, calligraphy, and decorative designs from the 1920s until her death in 1984, working freelance for a number of noted publishers, including Penguin Books, Curwen Press, Reader’s Digest and Mills & Boon. During the Second World War, she worked in ‘black propaganda’ for the Political Intelligence Department, Central Office of Information.
Designer, typographer and artist Elizabeth Friedländer was born to affluent German-Jewish parents in Berlin, Germany in 1903. She studied typography and calligraphy under painter and typographer Emil Rudolf Weiss at the Berlin Academy, before working for the Jewish publishing house Ullstein Verlag, where she designed headings for their fashion journal Die Dame. In 1927, Friedländer was invited to design a typeface for the Bauer Typefoundry, which was completed in 1938. Under normal practice, the typeface would have been given the surname of the designer; however, ‘Friedländer’ was considered too Jewish and, it was, therefore, named ‘Elizabeth-Antiqua’.
Due to rising anti-Semitic laws, Friedländer moved to Milan, Italy in October 1936 where she worked for the publisher Mondadori (1936–38) and Editoriale Domus (1937). However, the introduction of Italian anti-Semitic legislation in September 1938 threatened Friedländer’s ability to work in Italy. In February 1939, after an unsuccessful attempt to immigrate to the United States, she arrived in London on a Domestic Service permit, obtained through the Society of Friends Emergency Committee, which allowed her to work as a maid. In London, Friedländer learnt English and befriended Francis Meynell, British poet and printer, who secured her work at the advertising agency, Mather and Crowther. Meynell also introduced her to Ellic Howe, a writer on occultism, who at the time was working for Britain’s Political Warfare Executive at Bush House, on psychological warfare and forgery techniques. By 1942, Friedländer was in charge of design at the Ministry of Information’s black propaganda unit, led by Howe, her work including the production of forged Wehrmacht rubber stamps, ration books and other false Nazi documents for the political intelligence department. After the war, Friedländer remained in England, having established a wide circle of friends and contacts in the printing and publishing industry, and she later became a naturalised citizen. Friedländer worked freelance for various publishers, including Penguin and Curwen Press. In 1948, fellow émigré, Jan Tschichold, art director of Penguin Books, commissioned Friedländer to produce title lettering and patterned papers for the covers of the series, Penguin Music Scores and Penguin Poets. Throughout the 1950s, she drew roundels for Penguin Classics, designed for the Folio Society, and lettered presentation scrolls and rolls of honour. She also worked for the publishers, Reader’s Digest and Mills & Boon.
From 1951, Friedländer was calligrapher to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, designing and inscribing in 1957 the Book of Remembrance for the 94 cadets who had died in campaigns since September 1939. Her ornamental borders were issued by Linotype (1952), and Monotype (1958). Her later work included a masthead for the Jewish Chronicle, while her lettering was used by Cassells for Winston Churchill's History of the Second World War, for which she also designed endpapers. Appropriately, Friedländer designed her own invitation card for her 1955 Ben Uri exhibition, opened by graphic designer Abram Games. She also became a member of Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (SIAD). In the early 1960s, Friedlander followed her companion, Alexander Magri MacMahon to Kinsale, in Cork, Eire, where her circle included a number of creative women, such as writers Elizabeth Bowen and Molly Keane. Although hampered by failing eyesight in later years, she pursued her love of gardening and continued to design, creating bookplates, book jackets, catalogues, calligraphic maps, and lettering for Irish proverbs. She also designed items made under her Kinsale Crafts company, which were sold to tourists. Friedländer remained in Kinsale until her death in 1984. Her work is held by the University College Cork Library. In 1988, an exhibition showing the versatility of her work was held in the Boole Library, University College Cork, featuring her Monotype Printer's Flowers, drawings, calligraphic designs and engravings, as well as watercolour landscapes produced before she left Germany. In 2018 an exhibition was held at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, which displayed type design, wood engravings, decorative book papers, maps and commercial designs, as well as drafts and sketches for some of her Penguin covers. The 2017 film Elizabeth, by Meynell’s granddaughter Katharine Meynell, documented her life and work.