book (design) story #695
helmut schmid:
der weg nach basel / the road to basel
robundo publishing inc., tokyo, 1997
size: 25 x 25 cm
designer: helmut schmid
"the road to basel", compiled and designed by helmut schmid ("1942, see also our previous story), ...
... is a wonderful hommage to basel school pioneer and master emil ruder (1914-1970).
in the 1960s schmid had participated in ruder's legendary typography course.
for this tribute to ruder schmid invited numerous graphic designers – most of them students of ruder's at one point – to contribute their memories, reflections, and some examples of (typo)graphic designs – heinrich fleischhacker, karl gerstner, kurt hauert (who contributed the woodcut below), hans-rudolf lutz, fridolin müller, wolfgang weingart, among others.
since 1981 schmid has been living in osaka, japan.
his design of the book is striking: tiny sansserif type floating in white space. the texts are in german, english, and japanese.
included is emil ruder's essay "on drinking tea, typography, historicism, symmetry an asymmetry", originally published in the magazine "tm" in 1952: a fine testimony of the influence japanese (design) philosophy had on ruder – like it had on many other western modernist artists, designers, and architects.
on the back cover the words: "thanks emil ruder".
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