Designer Comparision Essay, Research Paper

Armin Hofmann s effect and significance as a Swiss designer included published the Graphic design manual: principals and practice in 1965. This book became a reference for many young designers and thus created a sort of design recipe that could be followed and repeated by others. This is one of the limitations of some of his work, it created a guidebook or path to follow that could be simply adding styling to create the international style . Hofmann was also an educator at Basle. His values were formal and focused on function, creating a science out of design. The limitations of his design were the rather rigid form and lack of self-expression on behalf of the designer. It seems to separate the designer from his/her work, rather than allowing them to work together.

Weingart s opened Basle up to experimentation with typography and the concept that you can break the design rules of the day. He played with the elements of type while still expressing clarity and order. He brought liberal views and values to Basle in the late 60 s. With his Non conformist style, reversing the avant-garde direction of the systematic designing. He played with shapes, aggressive color and expressed himself through his own design, while still keeping things in some sort of order and clarity. His work simply expressed and communicated the message, without adding unnecessary decorations or styling to the piece.

Both Hofmann and Weigngart s work and teachings while at Basal influenced April Griman. Her work exemplifies both the formal values of Swiss typography and the visual experimentation and freedom that Weigngart expressed. This is showed in her book jacket cover for Building in LA, where she used aggressive visuals, and color mixed with ordered typography, to maintain the simplicity of the subject and message.