Futurism and Dada

The avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century broke typography apart on purpose. The Italian Futurists shattered sentences into dynamic, noisy compositions; the Dadaists used collage, chance, and absurdity to protest a world that had produced the First World War.

Neither movement aimed at legibility. Both permanently expanded what a printed page was allowed to do — and experimental typography has owed them a debt ever since.