Sources used in this document:

The typeface can be directly compared with the Weimar Bauhaus chess set designed by Josef Hartwig in 1924. The chess set is wholly abstract, unlike Bayer's typeface. If Bayer's typeface had been as abstract as the chess set, then it would not be functional. The chess set, however, can be taken as a whole. Each piece is individual and on its own would not resemble a rook, knight, or pawn. The pawns are simple cubes, for instance. Seen together on the board, though, the pieces take on their roles and meanings within the game. If the letter "A" or "B" were not recognizable on their own outside of the context of alphabet, then Bayer's typeface would be impractical and therefore defy the fundamental objectives of Bauhaus design.

Both the Weimar and the Dessau schools represent a distillation of forms, shapes, and also colors. One of the Bauhaus pieces that pays direct homage to Wassily Kandinsky's color palette is Peter Keler's 1922 cradle: known as the Bauhaus Cradle. Its shapes and colors are both primary: circles and triangles rendered in red, yellow, and blue. The Weimar-designed cradle can be directly compared and contrasted with the 1927 design by Marcel Breuer of the Dessau school. Breuer's club chair is also known as the Wassily Chair: in tribute to Kandinsky. Yet unlike Keler, Breuer avoids the use of color altogether. His chair is just a chair: a straightforward rendition of forms both simple and deceptive. Influenced by the bicycle, the Wassily Chair is highly practical and devoid of embellishment.

Marianne Brandt's 1924 teapot designed in the tradition of the Weimar school almost looks traditional in comparison. Brandt also relies on simplified and pure forms: namely the circle, to convey the teapot. It is tremendously practical and functional. The core differences between the Weimar and the Dessau schools are mainly the fact that the latter was more self-aware. By the time the Dessau school had been established, the purpose of Bauhaus as a total fusion of art, design, form, and function could be explored consciously.