Armin Hofmann

Armin Hofmann Unnecessary Excess

An Introduction

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June 29, 1920

Armin Hofmann

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Winterthur, Switzerland 1920

Armin Hofmann was born June 29, and grew up during the great era of Swiss Design. He began his career at an early age of 26 teaching at the Basel School of Arts and Crafts. he continued teaching there for 40 years. His teaching method set new standards and his ideas and practices becaome widely known internationally. Armin Hofmann’s work is widely varied from posters, stage designs, logos, typographic work, orientaion systems and three dimensional design, yet his black and white poster work is best known.

The poster represents a graphic challenge and an educational tool, because the poster demands clarity at a distance and several other levels. The Goal is to create an image that works formally, structurally and works as a powerful communicator. A poster is for viewing at every distance and at every level.

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4 With my simply constructed black-andwhite posters I have endavored to do something to counteract the increasing trivialization of color evident since the Second World War on bill boards,

A Counter-Picture

in modern

Graded gray values and subtle juxtapositions of light and dark leave more of an impact and lasting impression than gaudy, colorful images the entertainment industry provides. The gray values and tones leave the viewr to gain a sense of reality by way of interpreting an actual event, not to be mixed with the confusion of artificial color and false sense of reality.

utensils and in the entertainment industry.

I tried to create a kind of counterpicture.

Armin Hofmann

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Stadt Theater Basel, 1962.

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The excess amounts of color pushed in new technological practices detract from the definite meaning of the work. We as humans see in color, we view the world in color and are continuously exposed to it. We overlook the symbolic quality and the inherent details in design and creative thinking when we are over exposed. The porcess of creating a counter-picture to the world we see is a way to tap into something more meaningful and instrumental.

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Kingsize posters, of the kind favored by the food, tobacco and beverage industry, are, logically enough, increasingly stamped by this machine-made artwork and its color excess.

Armin Hofmann

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Armin Hofmann Posters

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Installation View of the Exhibition, Posters by Armin Hofmann, 1981, MOMA, New York.

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ed v i r nt o s c ly s di nd l a a lic s ai le ce c o i r f e ran mb on. ti v r i e a s ea e sy ent s i i p e p h tt th o ther m a ve t e a t e st ch Armin Hofmann gi mor e a r i o w t t t h e n e r d co in w n b trie ctu i n o I rld ati ave e p o h w min I h ft , i o r y r c lit te a c a re ar h c

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People no doubt still fail to realize that, amidst streams of light, amidst words, noises and background music, color inevitably loses its own musicality, Its inner substance breaks down under conditions where there is a continual interfusion of motifs and in fields where the most important positions in terms of design have already been pre-emted by other elements. It was this realization that strengthened my resolve to use color sparingly in posters and to see it as sharply contrasting with the multicolored profusion of television. I was guided by the idea that finely tuned patches of color within large, neutral areas can generate greater expressive energy.

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Armin Hofmann

Giselle, Basler Freilichtspiele, 1959. Poster

Designed by Kim Ortengren Typeset by Kim Ortengren, Inc., Portland, Maine Printed and bound by Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine Composed in Akzidenz Grotesk, typeface designed by Gunter Gerhard Lang and Issued by Berthold in 1896. Garamond, designed by Claude Garamond.

Printed on cardstock, white Bound in saddle stitch.

Hofmann, Armin, Graphic Design Manual, Principles and Practice. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1965.

Hollis, Richard, Swiss Graphic Design, The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.

Wichmann, Hans, Armin Hofmann, His Work, Quest and Philosphy. Basel: 1989.