Armin Hofmann

Armin Hofmann (HonRDI) (29 June 1920^[1] – 18 December 2020) was a Swiss graphic designer and design educator, considered one of the most influential figures of Swiss design.^[2][3][4]

Armin Hofmann
Armin Hofmann speaking to students in a summer design program while visiting the Disentis Monastery in Disentis, Switzerland (1989)
Born	(1920-06-29)June 29, 1920
Died	(2020-12-18)December 18, 2020
Nationality	Swiss
Known for	Graphic designer, educator, author

Biography

Hofmann began his career in 1947 as a teacher at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel School of Art and Crafts at the age of twenty-six.^[5] 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.^[6] His notable students include April Greiman, Wolfgang Weingart, Steff Geissbühler,^[7] and Inge Druckrey.

Hofmann retired from teaching in 1986.^[8] He died in December 2020 at the age of 100 in Lucerne, where he lived with his wife Dorothea Hofmann-Schmid.^[9][10]

Influence

Hofmann's 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,^[11][12] building on ideas originating in Russia, Germany and The Netherlands in the 1920s, alongside avant-garde art and International Style in architecture.^[11] He is well known for his posters,^[13] which emphasized economical use of colour and fonts, in reaction to what Hofmann regarded as the "trivialization of colour."^[14][15] His posters have been exhibited at major museums, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art.^[16]

In 1965 he wrote the Graphic Design Manual, a popular textbook in the field.^[17]

Posters designed by Armin Hofmann

• 
  Exhibition poster for the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur, 1951
• 
  Exhibition poster for the Kunsthalle Basel, 1959
• 
  Exhibition poster for the Gewerbemuseum Basel, 1959
• 
  Exhibition poster for the Kunsthalle Basel, 1959
• 
  Exhibition poster for the Kunsthalle Basel, 1962

See also

• Swiss Style (design)
• International Typographic Style