Mehrdeutige Zeichen-Felder
Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1965 und 1967
Ein Beitrag zur experimentellen Typographie
Wolfgang Weingart
Wolfgang Weingart: Mehrdeutige Zeichen-Felder [Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1965 und 1967 /Ein Beitrag zur experimentellen Typographie]. St. Gallen: R. Hostettler / Typografische Monatsblätter, Januar 1970. Original edition [Beiträge zu Fragen der visuellen Gestaltung 12]. Text in German. Publishers offprint. Printed perfect bound self wrappers. [28] pp. One fold out. Experimental typography printed in black and white. Former owners inkstamp to front wrapper and first page. Short closed tear to rear wrapper. Fragile perfect binding with a 3-inch split from spine crown and a tiny dampstain to spine crown that does not intrude onto the textblock. A rare survivor in overall very good condition.
9 x 11.685 Publishers offprint from the January 1970 issue of Typografische Monatsblätter / Schweizer Graphische Mitteilungen / Revue suisse de l’imprimerie featuring Wolfgang Weingart’s experimental typography from 1965 and 1967 titled Mehrdeutige Zeichen-Felder [Ambiguous Character Fields] and published as Beiträge zu Fragen der visuellen Gestaltung 12 [Contributions to Questions of Visual Design 12].
The Swiss Style (also known as International Typographic Style) was developed in Switzerland in the 1950s. This style was defined by the use of sans-serif typefaces, and employed a page grid for structure, producing asymmetrical layouts. By the 1960s, the grid had become a routine procedure. The grid came to imply the style and methods of Swiss Graphic Design. Also stressed was the combination of typography and photography as a means of visual communication. The primary influential works were developed as posters, which were seen to be the most effective means of communication.
The Typografische Monatsblätter was one of the most important journals to successfully disseminate the phenomenon of Swiss typography to an international audience, as well as spread the burgeoning ideas of the New Wave style. In existence for almost eighty years, the journal was a vital forum for concepts and discussion. Throughout these years, the Swiss typographic journal witnessed significant moments in the history of typography and graphic design. In the second half of the 20th century factors such as technology, socio-political contexts, and aesthetic ideologies profoundly affected and transformed visual language.
Wolfgang Weingart (Germany, 1941 – 2021) was an internationally known graphic designer and typographer. His work is categorized as Swiss typography and he is credited as "the father" of New Wave or Swiss Punk typography.
“For me, typography is a triangular relationship between design idea, typographic elements, and printing technique.”
Weingart was born near the Swiss border of Germany, in the Salem Valley, in 1941. He lived near Lake Constance for about thirteen years, moving to Lisbon in 1954 with his family. 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, linocut and woodblock printing.
Weingart then completed a three-year typesetting apprenticeship in hot metal hand composition at Ruwe Printing. There he came into contact with the company’s consulting designer, Karl-August Hanke, who became his mentor and encouraged him to study in Switzerland.
Weingart met Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann in Basel in 1963 and moved there the following year, enrolling as an independent student at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (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 has lectured and taught extensively in Europe, North and South America, Asia, 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."
Weingart was a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) from 1978 to 1999, and served on the editorial board of Typographische Monatsblätter magazine from 1970 to 1988. In 2005 he was awarded the honorary title of Doctor of Fine Arts from MassArt. In 2013 he was a recipient of the 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. [Wikipedia]