Armin Hofmann
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Armin Hofmann (HonRDI) (29 June 1920[1] – 18 December 2020) was a Swiss graphic designer. He was one of the most prominent individuals in Swiss design.[2][3]
He began his career in 1947 as a teacher at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel School of Art and Crafts at the age of twenty-six.[4] Hofmann followed Emil Ruder as head of the graphic design department at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design) and was instrumental in developing the graphic design style known as the Swiss Style. His teaching methods were unorthodox and diverse, and set new educational standards that became widely known in design institutions throughout the world. In addition to his position at Basel School of Design, he taught workshops in graphic design at Yale University School of Art.[5] Hofmann retired from teaching in 1986.[6] His notable students include April Greiman, Wolfgang Weingart, Steff Geissbühler,[7] and Inge Druckrey.
His independent insights as an educator, combined with his rich and innovative powers of visual expression, created a varied body of work that included books, exhibitions, stage sets, logotypes, symbols, typography, posters, sign systems, and environmental graphics. His work is recognized for its reliance on the fundamental elements of graphic form – point, line, and shape – while subtly conveying simplicity, complexity, representation, and abstraction,[8][9] building on ideas originating in Russia, Germany and The Netherlands in the 1920s, alongside avant-garde art and International Style in architecture.[8] He is well known for his posters, which emphasized economical use of colour and fonts, in reaction to what Hofmann regarded as the "trivialization of colour."[10] His posters have been exhibited at major museums, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art.[11]
In 1965 he wrote the Graphic Design Manual, a popular textbook in the field.
Hofmann died in December 2020 at the age of 100 in Lucerne, where he lived with his wife Dorothea Hofmann-Schmid. [12][13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Thinking Armin Hofmann. 06 29 2011 Thinking Graphic Designer, Thinking Typographer". thinkingform. Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
- ^ Vasileva E. (2021) The Swiss Style: It’s Prototypes, Origins and the Regulation Problem // Terra Artis. Arts and Design, 3, 84-101.
- ^ Hollis R. Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920—1965. New Haven: Yale University Press: 2001.
- ^ "Armin Hofmann | Biography | People | Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". collection.cooperhewitt.org. Retrieved 2017-03-05.
- ^ PrintMag (2020-06-29). "Armin Hofmann at Yale: a Retrospective". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
- ^ "Armin Hofmann – Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) – 512 creative professionals from 46 countries". Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). Retrieved 2025-04-06.
- ^ "A+D Museum Celebrates Opening of Armin Hofmann Farbe/Color Exhibit – Nov. 14, 2013 | AIGA Los Angeles". losangeles.aiga.org. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
- ^ a b Hollis, Richard (28 April 2006). Swiss graphic design: the origins and growth of an international style, 1920-1965. Yale University Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-300-10676-3. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
- ^ "Armin Hofmann: 1920–2020". Poster House. 2020-12-20. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
- ^ Hofmann, Armin (1989). Wichmann, Hans (ed.). Armin Hofmann: His Work, Quest, and Philosophy = Werk, Erkundung, Lehre. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Berkhauser Verlag. p. 21. ISBN 0-8176-2339-6.
- ^ "Posters by Armin Hofmann | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
- ^ Armin Hofmann Passes
- ^ Urs Tremp: Reduktion war Armin Hofmanns Haltung. In: NZZ am Sonntag, 3. Januar 2021, S. 20 (Epaper; NZZ.ch).
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