Emil Ruder

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Emil Ruder

Emil Ruder (born March 20, 1914 in Zurich ; † March 13, 1970 in Basel ) was a Swiss typographer, author and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential typography teachers of the 20th century , a defining figure in Swiss typography and one of the founding fathers of the Basel School .

Life

Ruder trained as a typesetter from 1929 to 1933 . From 1938 to 1939 he went to study in Paris, which was followed by a job as a commercial factor - head of a book printing typesetting shop - in a specialist book publisher in Zurich. From 1941 to 1942, Ruder was a day pupil at the Zurich School of Applied Arts in the typesetting and printing class with Walter Käch and Alfred Willimann . In 1942 he was elected full-time specialist teacher for typography and from 1947 head of department 3 (arts and crafts apprenticeship department) at the general trade school in Basel . "The choice fell (...) on the then twenty-eight-year-old Emil Ruder, who was granted unrestricted freedom of teaching due to his qualifications and at the same time was given full responsibility for the artistic direction of the book printer and typesetter class." At that time, Max Caflisch and Emil Ruder stood for election . In 1947 Ruder initiated the day class for book printing and in 1968 he and Armin Hofmann founded the advanced training class for graphics at the Basel vocational school. From 1965 to 1970 Ruder was director of the general trade school and the trade museum in Basel .

Ruder was a member of the Die gute Form jury at the Swiss Sample Fair in Basel (1956); the Central Association of the Swiss Werkbund (1956); of the Federal Commission for Applied Arts (1961) and co-founder of the International Center for the Typographic Arts (Icta) in New York (1962).

Emil Ruder was married to Ingeborg Susanne Schwarz since 1950. The couple had two sons together, Martin (* 1951) and Daniel (* 1954).

philosophy

Emil Ruder saw the task of the typographer in exploring the relationships between technology, function and form. Every typographical task required him to rethink these relationships. To use ready-made recipes and formulas from the drawer for a creative task, Ruder saw as a misunderstood functionalism. For him, the art of typography lay in arranging and structuring letters, words and lines on a given surface. “Typography is primarily seen as a means of organizing different things. It is no longer about demanding artistic postulates and creations, but rather the endeavor to meet daily demands formally and functionally. " The absolute legibility of a text was an obligation of every design: «The typography is bound to a clear purpose, namely the written communication. Typography cannot be released from this obligation by any argument or consideration. A printed work that cannot be read becomes a pointless product. "

plant

Ruder practiced his typographic philosophy on posters for the Gewerbemuseum and the Kunsthalle Basel ( Johannes Froben , Die Zeitung, Berlin, the largest city in Germany ), as well as on his cover designs for the typographic monthly papers and in his book design. Composition of surfaces and structured, asymmetrical arrangements of words and lines of text serve the communication. Form and counter-form, line rhythm, proportions of font sizes, gray values ​​of columns contrasting with the empty white surface of the paper - the elementary optical principles were the basis of his creative experiments.

From 1957 to 1959 Ruder wrote four articles for the Typografische monthly papers under the heading Essentials about Diefläche , Die Linie , Das Wort and Der Rhythmus . This series of articles formed the basis for his Magnum Opus Typographie , published in 1967 . A design textbook. 

effect

Both in his design practice, his many years of teaching activity and in his journalistic contributions, Ruder represented his typographical stance as a craft that is committed to the content. His students Wolfgang Weingart and Hans-Rudolf Lutz - influential teachers in Basel and Lucerne - questioned his postulate that a text was absolutely legible with their work and their typographical fonts. Both showed in the 1970s that typography is first seen and then read. Both Weingart and Lutz demonstrated the pictorial aspect of typographic design on the cover drafts for the typographical monthly sheets: Weingart implemented language in a multi-part series from 1972/1973 , Lutz in the series of ten TM titles from 1977 Design is information .

His student Helmut Schmid, on the other hand, was a vehement advocate of Ruder's typography. der Weg nach Basel (self-published in 1997), the idea special issue 333 Ruder typography. Ruder philosophy (2009) and Emil Ruder - fundamentals  (published in 2013 by Seibundo Shinkosha in Tokyo on his initiative and in his book design) testify to this lifelong admiration for the teacher Emil Ruder. In 2014, on Ruder's 100th birthday, Schmid curated the exhibition thank you Emil Ruder in the Print Gallery in Tokyo.

Emil Ruder's pupil (selection)

Publications as a designer (selection)

  • Richard Doetsch-Benziger Collection. Books, East Asian Cabaret. Catalog for the exhibition at the Gewerbemuseum Basel January 26 to March 3, 1957.
  • A day with Ronchamp. Forty-eight photos by Paul and Esther Merkle, text by Robert Th. Stoll, foreword by Hans Urs von Balthasar , Johannes-Verlag Einsiedeln, 1958.
  • Gardens people games . A picture book by Paul and Esther Merkle, texts by Adolf Portmann and Richard Arioli, design by Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann, Pharos-Verlag Basel, 1960.

literature

  • Walter Amstutz (Ed.): Who's who in graphic art. An international illustrated handbook by leading commercial artists, illustrators, typographers and caricaturists. Amstutz & Herdeg Graphis Press, 1st edition, Zurich 1962.
  • Emil Ruder: Typography. A design textbook. New edition of the original edition from 1967, 7th edition, Verlag Niggli AG, Sulgen 2001, ISBN 3-7212-0043-8 .
  • Helmut Schmid (Ed.): Typography today. idea special issue, Seibundo Shinkosha Publishing Co., Ltd, Tokyo 1980.
  • Friedrich Friedel (Ed.): Theses on typography . Linotype, Eschborn 1984.
  • Helmut Schmid: the way to Basel. Typographic reflections by students of the typographer and teacher Emil Rude r. Robundo Publishers, Tokyo 1997.
  • Richard Hollis: Swiss graphics. The development of an international style 1920–1965. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2006, ISBN 978-3-7643-7267-5 .
  • Daniel Ruder (Ed.): Emil Ruder - fundamentals . Four lectures from the 1950s by the master of timeless typography . Seibundo Shinkosha Publishing Co., Ltd, Tokyo 2013, ISBN 978-4-416-11356-1 .
  • Christian Brändle, Karin Gimmi, Barbara Junod, Christina Reble, Bettina Richter (eds.): 100 years of Swiss graphics. Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-03778-352-8 .
  • 30 Years of Swiss Typographic Discourse in the Typografische Monatsblätter, Lars Müller Publishers 2017, ISBN 978-3-03778-538-6
  • Helmut Schmid (Ed.) Ruder Typography Ruder Philosophy , Lars Müller Publishers 2017, ISBN 978-3-03778-541-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ B. von Grüningen: Emil Ruder. Appreciation of personality . In: Typographic Monthly Pages . 1971, p. 174-175 .
  2. ↑ Kiyonori Muroga: Emil Ruder Biography . In: idea 333 . Seibundo Shinkosha Publishing Co. Ltd, Tokyo 2009, p. 14 .
  3. ^ Emil Ruder: Ordnende Typographie . In: Walter Amstutz and Walter Herdeg (eds.): Graphis. International journal for free graphics, commercial graphics and applied arts . No. 85 . Zurich 1959, p. 404-413 .
  4. ^ Emil Ruder: Typography . Niggli Verlag, Sulgen 2001, ISBN 3-7212-0043-8 , p. 6 .
  5. ↑ TM-research-archive. Accessed August 18, 2020 .
  6. ↑ TM-research-archive. Accessed August 18, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Rudder, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss teacher of typography
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1970
Place of death Basel