Wolfgang Weingart of the Swiss school is a landmark figure in the history of contemporary graphic design. His outstanding achievements are embodied in many aspects such as design practice, design teaching, and design ideas. While injecting great vitality into modern Swiss font design, he also played an important role in the history of design globally. His design style still exerts the profound impact on graphic designers and students around the world.
As a distinguished teacher, Weingart has always been committed to the teaching of font design. He taught an advanced class for graphic design at the Basel School of Design from 1968 to 1999 and has been making speeches around the world since 1972. His design teaching methods and ideas still have a great influence in the world and serve as an important school of design education.
The Weingart Typography was firstly curated by the Museum of Design Zurich in Switzerland, which focused on typography and reflected the evolution of the 20th century European fonts. It fully presented the design ideas and works of Wolfgang Weingart, the pioneer of the “New Wave” typography and an outstanding educator who have been honored as the "Father of the Swiss Punke Typography". More than 260 graphic design works, including a large number of personal works donated by Mr. Wegener to the museum and representative works of his outstanding students from all over the world, reproduced the essence of the “New Wave Typography” in the 1970s.
The exhibition is divided into 15 display areas, including experimental design, process manuscripts, classic poster representative works, teaching works, three-dimensional devices, related image materials, etc. It can be said that this exhibition is a wonderful and comprehensive review and the introduction of Wolfgang Weingart, a representative of graphic design in Switzerland.
The exhibition was firstly held at the Museum für Gestaltung in 2015. In 2017, it toured in China, with the CAFA Art Museum as its first stop. After that, the exhibition will be held in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Introduction of Wolfgang Weingart
Born in 1941 in Salem Valley, Germany, Wegener studied at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart from 1958 to 1960 and was first exposed to typesetting. After graduation, he spent three years as a typesetting apprentice at Ruwe Printing Company in Stuttgart. During that period, he was influenced by his colleagues working on graphic design and became interested in the Swiss typography. This prompted him to continue his studies in this area. From 1964 to 1968, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel where he was taught by Swiss Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann, both of which are design masters. Since then, he has been committed to the font design teaching. He taught an advanced class for graphic design at the Basel School of Design from 1968 to 1999 and taught in HGK Basel until 2004. Weingart also taught summer Graphic Design course organized by the Yale University in Brissago, Switzerland, and has been giving speeches around the world since 1972. From 1978 to 1999, Weingart served as a member of the Swiss Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). He published a detailed autobiography in 2000, which was reprinted in Lars Müller Publishers in 2014. Weingart’s life-long work has earned him several important awards and titles, including honorary Ph.D. of Arts by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 2005, medal of American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) in 2013 and Grand Prix Design awarded by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in 2014.
Wolfgang Weingart of the Swiss school is a landmark figure in the history of contemporary graphic design. His outstanding achievements are embodied in many aspects such as design practice, design teaching, and design ideas. While injecting great vitality into modern Swiss font design, he also played an important role in the history of design globally. His design style still exerts the profound impact on graphic designers and students around the world.
As a distinguished teacher, Weingart has always been committed to the teaching of font design. He taught an advanced class for graphic design at the Basel School of Design from 1968 to 1999 and has been making speeches around the world since 1972. His design teaching methods and ideas still have a great influence in the world and serve as an important school of design education.
The Weingart Typography was firstly curated by the Museum of Design Zurich in Switzerland, which focused on typography and reflected the evolution of the 20th century European fonts. It fully presented the design ideas and works of Wolfgang Weingart, the pioneer of the “New Wave” typography and an outstanding educator who have been honored as the "Father of the Swiss Punke Typography". More than 260 graphic design works, including a large number of personal works donated by Mr. Wegener to the museum and representative works of his outstanding students from all over the world, reproduced the essence of the “New Wave Typography” in the 1970s.
The exhibition is divided into 15 display areas, including experimental design, process manuscripts, classic poster representative works, teaching works, three-dimensional devices, related image materials, etc. It can be said that this exhibition is a wonderful and comprehensive review and the introduction of Wolfgang Weingart, a representative of graphic design in Switzerland.
The exhibition was firstly held at the Museum für Gestaltung in 2015. In 2017, it toured in China, with the CAFA Art Museum as its first stop. After that, the exhibition will be held in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Introduction of Wolfgang Weingart
Born in 1941 in Salem Valley, Germany, Wegener studied at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart from 1958 to 1960 and was first exposed to typesetting. After graduation, he spent three years as a typesetting apprentice at Ruwe Printing Company in Stuttgart. During that period, he was influenced by his colleagues working on graphic design and became interested in the Swiss typography. This prompted him to continue his studies in this area. From 1964 to 1968, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel where he was taught by Swiss Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann, both of which are design masters. Since then, he has been committed to the font design teaching. He taught an advanced class for graphic design at the Basel School of Design from 1968 to 1999 and taught in HGK Basel until 2004. Weingart also taught summer Graphic Design course organized by the Yale University in Brissago, Switzerland, and has been giving speeches around the world since 1972. From 1978 to 1999, Weingart served as a member of the Swiss Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). He published a detailed autobiography in 2000, which was reprinted in Lars Müller Publishers in 2014. Weingart’s life-long work has earned him several important awards and titles, including honorary Ph.D. of Arts by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in 2005, medal of American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) in 2013 and Grand Prix Design awarded by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in 2014.
