Wolfgang Weingart (6 February 1941 – 12 July 2021) was an internationally known
graphic designer and
typographer
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
. His work was categorized as Swiss typography and he was credited as "the father" of
New Wave or Swiss Punk typography.
Childhood
Weingart was born near the Swiss border of Germany, in the
Salem Valley, in 1941. He lived near
Lake Constance for about thirteen years and spent his childhood in Germany, moving to
Lisbon in 1954 with his family.
Education
In April 1958 he returned to Germany and began his studies at the Merz Academy in
Stuttgart, where he attended a two-year program in applied graphic arts. He learned
typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random ...
,
linocut
Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...
and
woodblock printing
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of textile printing, printing on textiles and later paper. Each page o ...
.
Weingart then completed a three-year typesetting apprenticeship in hot metal hand composition at Ruwe Printing. There he was introduced to the company’s consulting designer, Karl-August Hanke, who became his mentor and encouraged him to study in Switzerland.
Teaching and work
Weingart met
Emil Ruder
Emil Ruder (20 March 1914 – 13 March 1970) was a Swiss typographer and graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann joined the faculty of the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design).
He is distinguishable in the field of typography ...
and
Armin Hofmann
Armin Hofmann ( HonRDI) (29 June 1920 – 18 December 2020) was a Swiss graphic designer.
He began his career in 1947 as a teacher at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel School of Art and Crafts at the age of twenty-six. Hofmann followed Emil Ru ...
in Basel in 1963 and moved there the following year, enrolling as an independent student at the
Schule für Gestaltung Basel
The Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design), located at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule in Basel Switzerland, and its students have influenced the international graphic design community since it opened in 1968. Its tradition is shaped ...
(Basel School of Design). In 1968, he was invited to teach typography at the institution’s newly established ''Kunstgewerbeschule'' where Hofmann taught. The designers that surrounded Hofmann were not as focused on using Swiss-style principles in application to their work. These stylistic choices proved to be a great influence on Weingart, who was one of the first designers to abandon these strict principles that controlled Swiss design for decades. As he later wrote, “When I began teaching in 1968, classical, so-called "Swiss typography" (dating from the 1950s), was still commonly practiced by designers throughout Switzerland and at our school. Its conservative design dogma and strict limitations stifled my playful, inquisitive, experimental temperament and I reacted strongly against it. Yet at the same time I recognized too many good qualities in Swiss typography to renounce it altogether. Through my teaching I set out to use the positive qualities of Swiss typography as a base from which to pursue radically new typographic frontiers.” Between 1974 and 1996, at Hofmann’s invitation, Weingart taught at the Yale Summer Program in Graphic Design in Brissago, Switzerland. For over forty years he lectured and taught extensively in Europe, North and South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
According to Weingart, "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."
[Poynor, Rick. ''Eye'', No. 4, Vol. 1, 1994, pp. 8–16.]
In 2014, the Museum of Design in Zurich presented a retrospective of Weingart’s work. ''Weingart: Typography'' was the first exhibition in Switzerland which featured his personal work as well as results from his teaching.
Awards and affiliations
He was a member of the
Alliance Graphique Internationale
Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is a club of the world's leading graphic artists and designers. There are 527 members from 43 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top co ...
(AGI) from 1978 to 1999, and served on the editorial board o
''Typographische Monatsblätter''magazine from 1970 to 1988. In 2005 he was awarded the honorary title of
Doctor of Fine Arts
Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) is a doctoral degree in fine arts, may be given as an honorary degree (a degree ''honoris causa'') or an earned professional degree (in the UK).
Description
Doctoral programmes leading to DFAs are of equivalent leve ...
from MassArt. In 2013 he was a recipient of th
AIGA Medal the highest honor of the design profession, for his typographic explorations and teaching. In 2014 Weingart received the Swiss Grand Prix of Design award, presented by the Federal Office of Culture for his lifelong merits as a designer.
Publications
* Weingart, Wolfgang. ''Weingart: Typography –– My Way to Typography'', a retrospective volume in ten sections, Baden: Lars Müller Publishers, 2000 ()
* Knapp, Susan, Eppelheimer, Michael, Hofmann Dorothea et al. ''Weingart: The Man and the Machine'', statements by 77 of his students at the Basel School of Design (1968–2004), Basel: Karo Publishing, 2014 ()
External links
Heller, Steven: ''Wolfgang Weingart, Typographic Disruptor and Pioneer''. 19 July 2021Retrospective at the Museum of Design in ZurichAIGA 2013 medalistTM 2013 interview* Weingart's graphic design in the permanent collection of
MoMA
Lars Müller Publishers
Karo Publishing
Site includes articles, bibliography and comprehensive gallery of designer's work, a
Neugraphic.com
etrieved 9 February 2021
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weingart, Wolfgang
1941 births
2021 deaths
German graphic designers
German typographers and type designers
People from Bodenseekreis
AIGA medalists