Weingart book

wolfgang weingart Swiss Typography

“Anyone who uses helvetica knows nothing about typefaces�

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Wolfgang Weingart

Handset composition, 1971

Weingart playing with typography

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Weingart was born in 1941 in Germany. He is known as a graphic designer and typographer.

His work is known as Swiss typography and he is known as the the father of the new wave or Swiss Punk Typography. Weingarts career took off in the early sixties as a apprentice of hang composition at a typesetting firm. After he studied at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland.

Weingart’s inspiration Armin Hofman happened to be the head of the school asked Weingart to teach there. Weingart accepted the offer and has been working there many years.

While working at the Basel School he developed his Swiss style, and his students copied him and learned the style as well. Weingart is a very inspirational teacher and his students enjoyed him.

Weingart used a grid system to create a logical disposition of type and images as well san serif for a clear and functional communication. His work expresses paintery application of graphical and typographical elements. He shows emotionally-charged lines, type that takes an image like form and an organized and well balanced graphical form.

He has a sence of wild but yet controlled.

Weingart in his studio in Basel Switzerland 1960

Weingarts book My Way to Typography

In 2000, Weingart published a book titled My way to typography. His book gives the viewer a deep insight of Weingart’s designer life, work and influences. It took Weingart five years to put this book together but its worth the experiences to get his insight. He designed it in a way to look like a personal diary.

“Sometimes I wish I was living in the nineteenth century,’ writes Weingart in one of the pages. Why? ‘I’m an old granny you know? I miss many things that I grew up with during and after the war that can never be found any more” (Weingart).

This book shows his pasion for design, typography, teaching and creating. Weingart believes that computers and electronics are ruining the graphic design deveolpment.

Using your hand, mind and natural ability is the best way to create anything.

“I took Swiss Typography as my starting point, but then I blew it apart, never forcing any style upon my students. I never intended to create a “style.” It just happened that the students picked up—and misinterpreted—a so called ‘Weingart style’ and spread it around.”

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Worldformat poster for the convention on teaching aids, film layering, 1980-81

UCLA Extension Spring Quarter begins April 1, 2000

“I planned the typographic grid system according to the nature of the text matter, mostly charts, lists or cross-references designed representative spreads in full, and determined standards and specifications for bulk typesetting of the pages” 1983 Gewerbemuseum Basel, Das Schweizer Plakat 1900 – 1984. 'from the Blue Version

Swiss Posters based on the books original 1978/79 version

1980 version

The screen separations for the five-color artwork were complicated, and because the printed outcome was not entirely predictable, tihs was the most delicate assignment that I had ever attempted. Trusting my judgement that I had made no major errors when preparing the mechanicals in black and white, I could not foresee or control the color interaction of the multilayered dot screens until it was on press.

In 1984 the publisher Birkhauser, the poster collector and author Bruno Margadant, and the Gewerbemuseum Basel jointly planned an exhibit of Swiss posters based on the book with originals from the author’s collection and a few additions from the museum. The director asked me to create another poster for the exhibit. Instead of designing a completely new poster, I suggested a color variation of the first one using the original film mechanicals. oper, fix, a copy camera, and ultamately, a metal printing plate. Unlike type composition in lead, I did not have to reply on any outside manufacturing sources to realize

1980/81 version

my work with the film montage technique.

From the sketch to press all aspects of the technical procedure required the same basic materials: film, developer, fix, a copy camera, and ultamately, a metal printing plate. In comparison to letterpress, the photolithographic process was more flexible because of its simplicity. Freed from the contraints of stardard sizes and positionable anywhere on the film in any orientation, typography became unlimited and my work was enriched by this technique. After more than ten years of working with lithographic film montage, I started to repeat myself. The last poster designed in this technique was in 1983/84 for an exhibit in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center, “The 20th Century Poster.” The assumption that digital or electronic tools would be the next step in my work was a delusion. My hands and the tangibility of my materials are the sources of my pleasure and creative inspiration. I am bound to my roots as a craftsman.

1981/82 version

The single retrospective exhibition of my work was sponsored by the Institut fur Neue Techische Form, directed by Michaael Schneider, who donated its exhibition halls on the Mathildenhohe in Darmstadt for five weeks in the fall of 1990: WordMark/TypeField/PictureSpace. I made a four-in-one poster, two different posters on both front and back sides a spoof on type and handwriting with a common headline: Once upon a time... On the last day of the exhibition a concluding ceremony was held in a nearby design school. Invited guest speakers were Karl Gerstner, Vilen Flusser, and Hans-Rudolf Lutz. The auditorium was packed and the audience overflowed into the foyer of the building. The synthesis of my work was actually the stoyr of my life in retrooect.

I became aware of his after ten months of intense preparation for the exhibition - the culmination of the experience is the object in your hands.

Weingart, Wolfgang. My Way to Typography.

Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller, 2000. Print.

1982/83 version

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the 20th century poster, 1984

Herbery Bayer, 1982

“The simpler the assignment, the more difficult the solution�

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Bibliography “Graphic Design Legends and Rockstars: Wolfgang Weingart - The Kurtz Graphic Design Co. | KGDco | Graphic Design in Northeast Ohio.” The Kurtz Graphic Design Co KGDco Graphic Design in Northeast Ohio RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 March. 2015. http://www.swissdesignawards.ch/grandprix/2014/weingart/index.html?lang=en “Wolfgang Weingart.” Wolfgang Weingart. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 March. 2015. http://www2.palomar.edu/users/gkelley/Weingart.html “TM RSI SGM 1960–90.” TM Research Archive – Interviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 March 2015. http://www.tm-research-archive.ch/interviews/wolfgang-weingart/ “Keith Tam: Wolfgang Weingart’s Typographic Landscape.” Keith Tam: Wolfgang Weingart’s Typographic Landscape. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 March. 2015. http://keithtam.net/writings/ww/ww.html “Wolfgang Weingart.” AIGA. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 March. 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-wolfgang-weingart Weingart, Wolfgang. My Way to Typography. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller, 2000. Print.

Designed and written by Natalia Lefebvre Composed in Impact, typeface designed by Geoffrey Lee in 1965, Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold, typeface designed by Ong Chong Wah in 1987, Helvetica, typeface designed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in 1957 Printed from a Canon Image Runner onto 60# Hammermill Copyright © 2015 Natalia Lefebvre, Portland Maine, Maine College of Art