Franziska Baruch, 1901–1898, calligrapher, type designer, graphic designer, and painter.
Franziska Baruch studied design, illustration and calligraphy in Hamburg, where she was born, and Berlin. At the beginning of her career, she was mainly engaged in industrial design and worked with porcelain for the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin. She began her journey into Hebrew design with no knowledge of the language, when Yaakov Steinhardt approached her for designing the Passover Haggadah in a bibliophile edition in Hebrew and German. Stam, the typeface she designed for the Haggadah was first produced by the Berthold Type Foundry in Berlin and later by Moshe Spitzer’s foundry Jerusalem Letters under the name “Meir-Baruch”. She designed books and book covers, coins, children’s toys and more until Hitler came to power. In 1933, Baruch immigrated to Jerusalem and worked as a graphic designer. Her design work included the Israeli passport cover, banknotes, stamps and symbols for the Israeli government, and Ha’aretz newspaper logo.
Baruch was a member of the Jerusalem Group of Commercial Artists with Ismar David.