Wolfgang Weingart was a renowned graphic designer and typographer, the father of New Wave / Swiss Punk typography that defied strict grid-based arrangement conventions.
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“Typography is as boring as hell: what makes it exciting is how you interpret it,” Weingart said, and went on to create a typographic evolution and revolution.
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As a teacher at the Basel School of Design in the 1970s, Weingart wanted to get away from the new, all-pervasive style of the times and avoid any fixed style. He concentrated on experimental typography, but he did this by revisiting the basics to overcome elementary typographic problems, applying timeless principles to break the mould.
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Always unpredictable, personal, and expressive, his influence quickly spread worldwide.
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Coming from the pre-digital age, he viewed the computer as the biggest revolution in typography since Gutenberg, but his hopes remain unfulfilled. “There’s nothing it can do that can’t be done by hand, or film montage. It hasn’t produced a new visual language… people who haven’t mastered the conventional graphic techniques won’t be any better on a computer.”
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The Château Cramirat Collection is a treasure trove of art and design by philosopher Anna Ravitzki and designer Dan Alexander, housed in a 12th-century Templar landmark in the Valley of Mankind, Périgord, France.
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Weingart, Wolfgang. Weingart, My Way to Typography. Presentation poster. November 2000. NY: AIGA, 2000.
