Post World War II there came a time when most of the domains of applied arts failed to come up with a new form of expression. That is when Ruder revolutionized the traditional typography by divorcing it from all the previous conventional rules that it followed. He introduced new laws of composition that seemed to be in accordance with the modern times. Despite Ruder’s inclination toward pictorial thinking, he never found himself indulging in merely playful designs. According to him such indulgences result in losing the actual purpose of printing that is legibility. Furthermore, he stressed that the aesthetic affects are not to be discounted even when the primary goal of typography is communication. Among other methods employed by Ruder in his artwork, one of them was contrast. He pursued the craft of letterpress printing with utter dedication and devotion. A lover of asymmetry himself,Ruder’sclear and concise designs “developed sensitivity to negative or unprinted spaces, including the spaces between and inside letterforms” per Philip Meggs. Three articles, in February 1952, established Ruder as a supporter of radical change. In January 1952, the first issue of the combined magazines retained Times as the text typeface; He introduced Monotype in the February issue that included his Bauhaus article. [5] :197 Poster design by Emil Ruder for an exhibition, 1952. Notable works [ edit ]

Meggs, Philip (2011). Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p.363. ISBN 9781118017760. Clarity, objectivity, and legibility were the three main words that defined the Swiss Design style. To this day, this part of design history is still influential. The use of Helvetica didn't define the International Typographic Style, but its essence did. To organize information and communicate clearly, without any complications. That's why the Swiss Style is still relevant today. Do you have a favorite design style/era?

What is Swiss Style?

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. These included Chicago, New York, Geneva, Monaco, San Francisco, and a few others, but not the later PostScript “core set” of Helvetica, Times, Courier, Symbol, which were not released until the PostScript LaserWriter came out in 1985. Additional faces, including Palatino, New Century Schoolbook. Bookman, Avant Garde Gothic, Zapf Chancery, and Zapf Dingbats came out with the LaserWriter Plus in 1986. Some of the bitterness in this statement surely comes from the fact that the development of Neue Helvetica in 1983 ironically followed the blueprint Frutiger had established for Univers in 1957, right down to the numbering of each member of the family. BUT…

The book has changed my views about typography in various ways and i totally agree with the author's statements like "Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty.". Typography has one plain duty before
it and that is to convey information
in writing.” – Emil RuderThe movement laid out a very important foundation for the basics of design and minimalism. The Swiss Style was pervasive—it had a great impact across multiple design disciples, influencing art, architecture, and culture. Above all, the ethos was focused on objectivity and eliminating any sort of style for style's sake. The Swiss Style embraces clarity, precision, and stripped-down design that doesn't confuse. This era prepared a strong foundation for a future generation of designers. Attention to detail, technical training, and the use of grid systems for organization are strong traits that developed during this era. This is what gives the posters of the Swiss Style a timeless look that continues to have a strong impact amongst audiences.

WW: For the most part, my hopes for the computer have not been fulfilled. In fact there’s nothing it can do that can’t be done by hand, or film montage. It hasn’t produced a new visual language. At the time I introduced the Macintosh to Basle, for example, New Wave was already at its peak in the States. I have to admit, however, that the computer has speeded things up, leaving more time for design and conceptual thinking. WW: I find it hard to identify with some of the posters I have designed. I can’t see myself in them – which make me think they must have come from somewhere else, from another planet. Sometimes a technique will lead me to a new idea, but when that happens, I tend to think that nothing in the work is mine. I believe that technique is enormously important. There aren’t many designers like me who take on all the technical aspects of a job themselves.What if Steve Jobs had gone to the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule (school) in Basel—as a number of Americans did in the 1970s—instead of Reed College? What and who would have influenced his choice of typefaces for the Macintosh? If Jobs had been in Basel he would have come under the influence either of Ruder’s followers (Ruder had died in 1970) and/or Wolfgang Weingart, Ruder’s successor as typography instructor. But along with the strong views on type held by those at the Basel school itself, he may have come under the broader sway of several designers working in a “Modernist classical” style: the elderly Jan Tschichold, the book designer Jost Hochuli, the book designer and type critic Max Cafl isch, and the type designer Hans Eduard Meier. Furthermore, in Switzerland neither Helvetica nor ITC typefaces would have loomed as large as they did during that decade in the United States. Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface (the typefaces which do not use serifs, which means that these typefaces does not have tails on the end of their characters) originally released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1896 under the title Akzidenz-Grotesk. It was the first sans-serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many later Neo-Grotesque typefaces.