Gert Wiescher (26 July 1944, in

Braunsbach Braunsbach is a municipality in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is on the Kocher river, about from the district seat of Schwäbisch Hall. The town is bordered to the north by the town Künzelsau, the county ...

am Kocher – February 2022) was a German

graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...

type designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

and author. He was known for an almost complete re-design of Bodoni classic typefaces, the work of

Giambattista Bodoni Giambattista Bodoni (, ; 16 February 1740 – 30 November 1813) was an Italian typographer, type-designer, compositor, printer, and publisher in Parma. He first took the type-designs of Pierre Simon Fournier as his exemplars, but afterwards bec ...

, the 17th-century Italian typographer. His Bodoni Classic typefaces are considered very close to the authentic version.FontHaus – You say Bodoni, I say Bodoni
Retrieved on 18 April 2013. He has also designed many new typefaces.

Biography

At 14 years of age Wiescher went to Paris to study fine art. He financed his stay by doing portraits on the

Place du Tertre The Place du Tertre is a square in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France. Only a few streets away from Montmartre's Basilica of the Sacré Cœur and the Lapin Agile, it is near the summit of the city's elevated Montmartre quarter. Place du Ter ...

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

. In the 60s Wiescher studied graphic design at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts (Since November 2001,

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

). He financed his studies by sidewalk painting and drawing portraits. While doing sidewalk paintings, he met the typeface designer

Erik Spiekermann Erik Spiekermann (born 30 May 1947 in Stadthagen, Lower Saxony) is a German typographer, designer and writer. He is an honorary professor at the University of the Arts Bremen and ArtCenter College of Design. Biography Spiekermann studied art his ...

, who inspired his love of this branch of design.Creative Characters – Gert Wiescher
Retrieved on 20 December 2012. After two years he quit his studies and went to Barcelona where he worked at the offices of Harnden & Bombelli, for whom he designed the OECD-Pavilion of the 1970 Osaka World Expo. In 1972 he moved on to Johannesburg working as an

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

at Grey and Young advertising . In 1975, he returned to Germany, working first for DFS+R-Dorland, and then for the "Herrwerth & Partner" ad agency. At Herrworth, he was involved in introducing IKEA into the German market. In 1977 he became a creative partner in the Lauenstein & Partner ad agency, creating mainly campaigns for large German retail chains. In 1982 he started his own design office, creating work for editors (

Markt & Technik Markt+Technik is a publisher of books and magazines based on computer topics which was established in 1976. The publisher became well known in the 1980s and 1990s through the publications of computer magazines such as ''64'er'', ''Power Play'', ' ...

, Systhema and Langen-Müller-Herbig), computer companies (House of Computers,

FileNet FileNet, a company acquired by IBM, developed software to help enterprises manage their content and business processes. FileNet P8, their flagship offering, is a framework for developing custom enterprise systems, but it can be used as-is. It i ...

) and he worked for Apple Computers designing their publications (Apple-Age and Apple-LIVE).

Typeface design

With the first Apple Macintosh he started to digitalize typefaces for his own use. This work resulted in a first small typeface collection, which he marketed through

FontShop FontShop International was an international manufacturer of digital typefaces (fonts), based in Berlin. It was one of the largest digital Type foundry, type foundries. The ''FontFont'' library of fonts contains designs by 160 type designers, amon ...

. He suggested the idea of recreating the Bodoni original typefaces to FontShop, and worked on the "Bodoni-Classic" family for more than ten years. Building on this, he has created, to date, over 300 font families with far more than 1000 different weights, and is probably Germany's most prolific type designer. Wiescher's work also includes a new version of the Logotype for the Munich local newspaper

Abendzeitung The Abendzeitung (''"Evening Paper"''), sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday ...

(Evening Newspaper). For "VOGUE" Moscow he developed a special Cyrillic version of Bodoni Classic. Ringier publishers in Zürich also use a special Bodoni Classic version. Wiescher's typeface "Red Tape" is on permanent exhibition at the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

in Leipzig. Wiescher had two sons. Wiescher died in February 2022. According to his friend

he never fully recovered from a COVID infection in 2020.

Publications

* Gert Wiescher: ''Professionelles Gestalten mit PageMaker.'', Markt & Technik Verlag, Munich 1988, * Gert Wiescher: ''Desktop Advertising.'', Wirtschaftsverlag Langen Müller/Herbig, Munich 1990, * Gert Wiescher: ''Zeitschriften & Broschüren.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1990, * Gert Wiescher: ''Professionelles Gestalten mit PageMaker 4.0.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1991, * Gert Wiescher: ''Schriftdesign.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1991, * Gert Wiescher: ''Logos, Monogramme & Icons.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1991, * Gert Wiescher: ''Blitzkurs Typografie.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1992, * Gert Wiescher: ''Blitzkurs Zeitschriftengestaltung.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1992, * Gert Wiescher: ''Blitzreferenz Farbe.'', Systhema-Verlag, Munich 1992, * Gert Wiescher: ''Geliebte Provenzalische Küche.'', Mary-Hahn-Verlag, Munich 1996, * Gert Wiescher: ''Crostini und Panini.'', Mary-Hahn-Verlag, Munich 1998, * Gert Wiescher: ''Für Gäste das Beste.'', Mary-Hahn-Verlag, Munich 2001, * Gert Wiescher: ''Das Brain Projekt.'', Kindle Edition, 2011, ASIN B005T2XBIW * Gert Wiescher: ''User Manual Europe.'', English Kindle Edition, 2011, ASIN B00533K69Y

References

External links

* Retrieved on 20 December 2012.
Klingspor Museum – GWiescher
Retrieved on 10 August 2013.
Typefaces by Gert Wiescher
in Font Factory. Retrieved on 18 April 2013.
Typefaces by Gert Wiescher
in FontShop. (German) Retrieved on 18 April 2013.
Typefaces by Gert Wiescher
in Identifont. Retrieved on 18 April 2013.
Typefaces by Gert Wiescher
in MyFonts. Retrieved on 18 April 2013.

in the BAM-Portal (German) Retrieved on 10 August 2013. *. (German) Retrieved on 20 December 2012.

in Luc Devroye. Retrieved on 14 July 2017.

in Luc Devroye. Retrieved on 14 July 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiescher, Gert 1944 births 2022 deaths German typographers and type designers German graphic designers People from Schwäbisch Hall (district)