How did Wolfgang Weingart became the father of New Wave Typography?

• The people he met whom inspired him and led him on the path
• Inspired young influential students who spread the word and techniques through media
• Personal experiments with his unique style and opened eyes on freedom for artists, his art was different

Who is Wolfang Weingart?

Born in 6th february 1941, was a well known german typographer and graphic designer who specialized in Swiss typography, who also was later named the ‘father’ of the New wave typography and became popular on an international scale.

In 1958 Wolfgang returned to Germany and began to further expand his education as he joined Merz Academy, Stuttgart for a 2 year course for applied graphic arts, where Wolfgang began to learn and understand woodstock printing and typesetting throughout his time in Merz Academy.

Later after successfully passing the course, Wolfgang attended a 3 year apprenticeship programme at Ruwe Printing, learning the techniques and skills of handling hot metal with hands.

This extra experience in various art fields, allowed Wolfgang to open up to new techniques, ideas and outlook on art. Wolfgang took a huge step when agreeing to teaching and lecturing about his work in Typography in***‘’Kunstgewerbeschule’’***school for vocational arts 1968.

New Wave Typography - Design History

This research was completed from the link shown below, couple of elements have been taken and re written or sumarised and used as an inspiration.

The New Wave of Graphic Design

Weingart stated

‘’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 mis-interpreted a so called ‘Weingart Style’ and spread it around’’

-Wolfgang Weingart

The traditional Swiss style has been mainly heavily focused on allowable functions in design, where as Weingart’s many typographic elements had understanding of the realistic functions in typography.

It is stated that Weingart has been interested in the qualities of typography, how much can they be pushed and changed while still retaining the core meaning before it is totally remodeled.

In the 80s, Basel school of design, Weingart had american students who attended his classes and were inspired by them. They have brought these ideas and techniques back to the states and put it out to the graphic design mainstream through their works. Wolfgang reacted to this:

‘’They were doing it as a style and it was never my idea to create a fashion’’