In this issue the typographic pot has been stirred with more than usual vigour, resulting in an enticing range of flavours. From Niklaus Troxler‘s typographic jazz posters, reflecting the harmonies of the international jazz festival in Willisau, Switzerland, it is quite a step to the sensuous letters from Gustav Klimt, formed before the pursuit of a holistic approach to design became a profession.

Friedrich Friedl describes for us the apparently effortless economy to be found in the work of Helmut Schmid, which can be compared with Bruno Monguzzi’s designs and contrasted (wildly) with the Sho-cards illustrated in Steven Heller’s article.

Ken Garland encourages us to discover usual visual definitions in the world around us, completing a particularly satisfying repast.

Hans Dieter Reichert & Mike Daines

…Best known as a visual communicator, Monguzzi is also a thoughtful and thought-provoking writer and professor. Although his work is internationally celebrated Monguzzi still considers himself an outsider to the profession. He lives in the small village of Meride in the hills of southern Switzerland. Life centres around his family, teaching school and designing from his studio located on the third floor of his farmhouse. In this quiet and relatively isolated environment he concentrates on the search for simple truths in visual communication.

Truths, in the Monguzzi context, mean that ideal in problem-solving that has to do solely with the quality of the communication, resulting from the rational employ of formal and ‘linguistic devices’ which lead to ’independent’ answers, not culled from a bag of tricks. (Visual communication meaning the practice of applying form over content objectively, through the use of relevant signifiers such as words or images)…

Prof. Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo