Emil Ruder
| Emil Ruder | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Emil Ruder March 20, 1914 Zurich |
| Died | March 13, 1970 (aged 55) Basel |
| Known for | Typographer and Designer |
| Movement | International Typographic Style |
Emil Ruder (1914–1970) was a Swiss typographer and graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann joined the faculty of the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design).
He is distinguishable in the field of typography for developing a holistic approach to designing and teaching that consisted of philosophy, theory and a systematic practical methodology. He expressed lofty aspirations for graphic design, writing that part of its function was to promote 'the good and the beautiful in word and image and to open the way to the arts' (TM, November 1952 Issue). He was one of the major contributors to Swiss Style design. He taught that typography's purpose was to communicate ideas through writing, as well as placing a heavy importance on Sans-serif typefaces. No other designer since Jan Tschichold was as committed as Ruder to the discipline of letterpress typography or wrote about it with such conviction.
The Swiss Style (also known as International Typographic Style) was developed in Switzerland in the 1950s. This style was defined by the use of sans-serif typefaces, and employed a page grid for structure, producing asymmetrical layouts. By the 1960s, the grid had become a routine procedure. The grid came to imply the style and methods of Swiss Graphic Design. Ruder demonstrated a grid of nine squares as the basis for different sizes of image. There are 24 possible positions and shapes of image.
Also stressed was the combination of typography and photography as a means of visual communication. The primary influential works were developed as posters, which were seen to be the most effective means of communication.
Emil Ruder was born in Zurich, Switzerland on March 20, 1914. Ruder was trained as a typesetter in Basil (1929-1933), and studied in Paris from 1938-1939. Ruder published a basic grammar of typography titled Typographie. The text was published in German, English and French, by Swiss publisher Arthur Niggli in 1967. The book helped spread and propagate the Swiss Style, and became a basic text for graphic design and typography programs in Europe and North America. In 1962 he helped to found the International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA) in New York.
Ruder began his education in design at the age of fifteen when he took a compositor's apprenticeship. By his late twenty's, he began attending the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts when the principles of Bauhaus and Tschichold's new typography were taught.
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