New Wave Typography

“Type is not neutral. Type is a character.”

Founded by April Grebel, Wolfgang Weingart · France, late 1970s–80s

Philosophy

Type can lean, stack, overlap, and breathe. Swiss Design taught us to arrange type. New Wave asked: what if type became the image?

The Story

Wolfgang Weingart was a Swiss typographer who taught at the Basel School of Design — the birthplace of Swiss Design. He started asking his students to break rules he had spent his life teaching. Type did not have to sit in a column. It could be rotated, layered, slanted, given more than one weight on a page. His students included April Grebel, who brought these ideas to America. Neville Brody, who applied them to The Face magazine. Weingart never considered himself a designer — he was a teacher who kept asking why. His answer to every rule: what if we didn't have it?

Design Parameters

Color Palette

Background

#1C1C1C

Text

#F5F5F5

Accent

#FF3366

Alt

#00CCFF

Typography

Futura (used unconventionally), Helvetica, serif mixed

Mood

Kinetic, layered, expressive

Best For

Poster design

Magazine layouts

Album art

Fashion typography

Notable Examples

Emigre magazine

Wolfgang Weingart teaching posters

Neville Brody's work

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