Virtual Typography

4.2

4

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof Page:8 4

001-184 01212.indd 84001-184 01212.indd 84 12/19/08 3:03:23 PM12/19/08 3:03:23 PM

Digital typography: 4.2 Swiss Punk and the Pacifi c Wave

4.1 The digital revolution 4.3 New trends in Europe

Swiss Punk and the Pacifi c Wave

Despite the critique of modernists, who feared a decline

in typographic standards, a lot of designers embraced

computers with an unprecedented degree of enthusiasm.

A sometimes joyful, but mostly harsh, representation of

contents was the result. Even though the fi rst examples

of digital artwork relied on pixel patterns and geometric

angles, they were in their playfulness similar to 1970s

punk graphics. These punk graphics were, not unlike

Dadaism (see pages 18–21 and 62–63), a kind of

anti-art, an opposition of the aesthetic principles of

the time. Postmodern typographers broke with the

established principles in the 1980s. They expressed

their rebellious attitude through breaking up the

rectangular grid and prioritising individualistic

expression over legibility and clarity.

As Wolfgang Weingart was one of the fi rst design

lecturers to apply a more inventive and liberal approach

to modernist principles at the art school in Basel,

Switzerland, some postmoderninsts used the term

‘Swiss Punk’ in reference to their work. This typographic

label was somewhat misleading because Weingart’s

reformed idea of modernism had little to do with

computer graphics or punk. What Weingart introduced

to modernist graphic design in Switzerland from 1968

onwards was a very methodical, hands-on approach

to using graphic and photographic textures, as well as

typographic structures, to overcome the formal aesthetic

restrictions of late modernist designs. Like artist Dieter

Roth, Weingart used graphic masks and photographic

means to translate type into abstract imagery.

‘Pacifi c Wave’ can be seen as a derivative of Weingart’s

experimental approach. This term, which outlined

postmodern typography on the west coast of the United

States, was also often misused as an excuse to justify

a random approach to typography and graphic layout.

‘We argued that there was no such

thing as neutrality or transparency

in design, that all graphic gestures

are loaded with meaning.

Also, we weren’t interested in

addressing the needs of

multi-national corporations and

lowest common denominator

audiences. We were looking to

work for smaller cultural

institutions and audiences who

would enjoy reading visually

sophisticated messages.’

Rudy Vanderlans

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof Page:8 4

001-184 01212.indd 84001-184 01212.indd 84 12/19/08 3:04:19 PM12/19/08 3:04:19 PM