International TypoGraphics Magazine

This issue of Idea magazine is the definitive publication on Emil Ruder, the Basel typographer and teacher. It far surpasses The Road to Basel, Schmid’s earlier tribute to his teacher. That book (first published in 1997, revised in 2002 and reviewed by me in Baseline, no. 47) gave the reader a thorough understanding of Ruder’s power as a teacher and as an inspiration, but it left one wanting to know more about Ruder the typographer. Now Schmid has filled that void. The special issue of Idea gives us a larger corpus of work by which to judge Ruder as well as a broader set of his writings.

Schmid has gathered all of Ruder’s writings on typography – no matter how ephemeral – and divided them into three sections: serif typography, sans serif typography, and Univers typography. In each section he has reprinted Ruder’s essays followed by his work of the period (and a few photos of Ruder himself at work). The sections roughly correspond to the years 1942–63, 1952–64, and 1961 (1959?)–67. They are supplemented at the back by more tributes to Ruder by former students, colleagues and professionals, some repeated from The Road to Basel. To separate them visually from Ruder’s thoughts and work, these pages – and the introductory matter – are printed on grey paper...