Wolfgang Weingart

Weingart is widely recognized as the originator of 'New Wave' (sometimes called 'Swiss Punk') typography, which emerged from his teaching and practice at the Basel School of Design beginning in the late 1960s. This movement challenged the orthodoxies of the International Typographic Style while remaining grounded in its technical foundations.

Weingart taught at the Basel School of Design (Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel) in Switzerland for several decades. His classes attracted international students—many from the United States such as April Greiman and Dan Friedman—who went on to spread his experimental approach to typography throughout the global design community.

Weingart's designs frequently feature exaggerated letter-spacing, bold halftone patterns, overlapping type and image, unconventional angles, and a deliberate breaking of grid structures. He exploited the possibilities of film-based typesetting and photomechanical reproduction to create textures and effects that traditional metal type could not achieve.

His major monograph, titled 'Weingart Typography,' was published by Lars Müller Publishers in 2000 and documents decades of his design work and teaching. He also contributed to and was featured in numerous international design publications including Typografische Monatsblätter, helping disseminate his ideas about expressive typography worldwide.