Born in 1941, Wolfgang Weingart is an independent graphic designer and a very influential teacher at the kunstgewerbeschule in Basel.
Weingart started a 3 year apprenticeship with a hand typesetter from 1958 in Stuttgart.
He then traveled to Basel where in enrolled in the school of Art and Crafts.These brief studies, under Emil Ruder and Armin Hofman, were the extent of Weingart’s studies as he was mostly self-taught.
Neither his teachers had a significant influence on his work, but the idea of systematic approach to learning was introduced to him by Hofman.
Weingart worked as a freelance designer on Basel until he joined the faculty at Basel. Weingart’s typography broke free from the usual grid system, asymmetry, and the use of text flush left/ragged right. He did maintain that typography should have a hidden structure and a visual order. He later shifted his emphasis from from design to teaching and is an influential successor to Emil Ruder.