Did Wolfgang Weingart revolutionise typography?
Wolfgang Weingart, a Swiss typographer, who was appointed an instructor of typography at the Basel School of Design in 1963 (Heller, 2005). His work stood out to me as it did not conform to traditional typography and the established rules, which at the time was clean and well read. I personally found Weingart's work ugly and unattractive, but also captivating. I'm going to be diving deeper into what his work achieved and try to understand his mind set and process.
Within an interview with Stephen Heller in 2005 Weingart stated "I started a new design life at the Basel School as a “guest listener.” I soon found, however, that this International Style had limits, so I started to get rebellious and began my own personal work. I also organized rebellious speakers to give lectures against the school, including G.G. Lange from the Berthold typefoundry, Anton Stankowski, Hap Grieshaber and others. Ruder (Emil Ruder former teacher at the Basel School of Design) almost threw me out of the school. But I am not a pioneer." (Weingart, 2005). I believe this is what made Weingart's work so unique as he was reacting against rational Swiss typography, the work of the previous generation. (Lupton, 1996, P.167). He reorganised, reshaped, spaced and underlined typesetting, liberating them from the shackles of conformity.
Weingart designed a cover for TM Magazine, saying "I feel typography". (Lupton, 1996, P.167). This meant that Weingart saw typography as personal, a form of expression, a statement to make a point and be heard in a world of formality. He worked intuitively and taught the same way, influencing many students to see typography in a different light, that typography should not all be methodical and structured to please the eye. (Lupton, 1996, P.167). According to Weingart, he never influenced his students to adopt a certain type of style, however, his students misunderstood his teachings and spread it around as ‘Weingart style’. (McBroom, n.d.).
During an interview Weingart stated "My work is like a quarry. People see a stone they like, appropriate it and work it until there’s nothing left. When that happens, they go back and get themselves a new stone. In my opinion, most designers don’t think or develop anything for themselves any more. They just process fragments. The result is emotional chaos. Today students look to Emigre magazine for ideas. They find this chaos wildly attractive: they imitate it and think it’s modern." (Schwemer-Scheddin, 1991). This shows how Weingarts process was completely unique and how his passion for his 'going against the grain' style never changed because that is how he felt. Weingart acknowledges how his work is deemed as modern and is still influential in modern day without people understanding the influences of where the style derived from.
From reading about Wolfgang Weingart and his Swiss typographic influences, I believe he has shaped modern typography, from expressive work, he turned typography into a feeling and every piece he created had a message or a meaning in an abstract form crafted like a piece of art in a gallery. He showed that typography can be personal and can be expressed in multiple ways and passed these teachings on to the many of students he lectured.
From looking into the history of Wolgang Weingart, I have learnt that not all work needs to conform to the established rules of what society perceives to be the "norm", that without conforming, you can change a course of design history in doing so. Weingart showed me that passion and expression is important in forms of typography and that the type can be just as important or more so than an image itself.
References:
Heller, S. (2005). Wolfgang Weingart: Making the Young Generation Nuts. [online] AIGA | the professional association for design. Available at: https://www.aiga.org/wolfgang-weingart-making-the-young-generation-nuts [Accessed 27 Nov. 2018].
Weingart, W (2005). Wolfgang Weingart: Making the Young Generation Nuts. [Quote] AIGA | the professional association for design. Available at: https://www.aiga.org/wolfgang-weingart-making-the-young-generation-nuts [Accessed 27 Nov. 2018].
Lupton, E. (1996). Mixing messages. New York: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, p.167.
McBroom, B. (n.d.). Wolfgang Weingart. [online] Historygraphicdesign.com. Available at: http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-information/postmodern-design/538-wolfgang-weingart [Accessed 26 Nov. 2018].
Schwemer-Scheddin, Y. (1991). Eye Magazine | Feature | Reputations: Wolfgang Weingart. [online] Eyemagazine.com. Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-wolfgang-weingart [Accessed 26 Nov. 2018].
Yorumlar