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teaching. I took ‘Swiss
typography’ as my starting
point, but then I blew it apart,
never forcing a 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.
YSS: The theorist Vilém Flusser
has called you a ‘linear’ thinker.
Do you think he said this
because you deal with linear
material, with type? Flusser has
also said that type explains – and
therefore destroys – the image.
Are you a destroyer of images?
WW: I see type as a kind
of picture that speaks. I
am a maker, not a thinker.
What’s reflected here is my
activity, not my inner being. I
experiment simply to broaden
my knowledge of the vocabulary
and techniques of typography.
What gives me satisfaction is
the practice, not the theory.
YSS: Are you saying that you
can extract personal style
out of a technical process?
Shouldn’t it be the other way
around, with the tool as the
servant of the creative mind?
WW: For me technology is the
ultimate challenge: it’s both a
partner and a friend. But I’ll
never be completely under its
control, because I know how
to do things by hand, how to
draw. If you know about only
the technical side, you’ll never
produce a complete design.
YSS: But isn’t the new technology
necessary for new ideas?
What about the computer,
which you introduced into your
typography course at Basle in
January 1985?
WW: For the most part, my
hopes for the computer have
not been fulfilled. In fact there’s
nothing it can do that can’t be
done by hand, or film montage.
It hasn’t produced a new
visual language. At the time I
introduced the Macintosh to
Basle, for example, New Wave
was already at its peak in the
States. I have to admit, however,
that the computer has speeded
things up, leaving more time for
design and conceptual thinking.
The PC represents the
second big revolution in
typography since Gutenberg, but
to take full advantage of it you
still require a thorough, basic
classical training in design.
People who haven’t mastered the
conventional graphic techniques
won’t be any better on a
computer. The computer has a
considerable impact on teaching,
but it is also a valuable tool.
(7)
Armin Hofmann/Wolgang Weingart
Wolfgang Weingart