Armin Hofmann dies – his graphics made school – culture

Armin Hofmann is one of the most influential graphic designers in Switzerland. Now he has died at 100 years old.

Armin Hofmann made a name for himself in Basel and revolutionized graphic education. But he was born in Winterthur in 1920. He later learned the trade of lithographer and soon had his own studio.

From 1947 to 1986, Hofmann taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel, where he trained generations of graphic artists. He was in high demand as a teacher. A petition had been filed for Hofmann to be allowed to continue teaching after his retirement, recalls his former student Michael Renner. “Because the students knew they wanted to have lessons with him.”

Legend:

Armin Hofmann is one of the founding fathers of the graphic arts training in Basel.

Melchior Imboden

Artist and teacher

Michael Renner fondly recalls Hofmann’s dedicated lessons: “It was unique to see how Armin Hofmann taught his color task, how involved he was in the process of testing, mixing, comparing and experimenting.”

Renner is now the director of the Institute for Visual Communication at the FHNW University of Art and Design in Basel. In October this year, the FHNW, together with the Basel School of Design, organized an inauguration on the occasion of the Hofmann centenary.

Legend:

Posters were probably the most important part of Hofmann’s work.

Basel School of Design

The exhibition at the FHNW was dedicated to the professor and teacher Hofmann. He was one of the first to develop a training method for teaching graphics.

He wrote a groundbreaking textbook on this in 1965. “Back then, the book filled a gap in graphic design training because it covered the basics so intensively,” explains curator Sandra Bischler.

Reduction to the essential

With Armin Hoffmann, the students first learned the basics: “They designed very simple shapes, circles, rectangles, usually in black and white. The idea: you give students the opportunity to learn the basics of composition through limited tasks, with reduced colors and shapes, ”says Bischler.

This concept also caused an international sensation. It was a time when outsiders were admired The Swiss graphic scene looked down. Armin Hofmann also actively disseminated his teaching methods: he taught as a visiting lecturer abroad, especially at Yale University and in India.

next Armin Hofmann also did his own work during his teaching activity. He has designed posters for the Kunsthalle and the Theater Basel, for example. Later, he founded a higher education class that attracted many foreign graphics students to Basel.

They relate of a cautious teacher who, despite methodical rigor, encouraged an emotional approach. “Certain things cannot be measured, you have to feel them,” Hofmann said.

His pedagogy is stopped in the fifties and sixties and, therefore, is a mirror of that time. However, his teaching continues: The idea of ​​orienting oneself in the simplest ways in graphic design training continues to this day. Validity.