Born: 1920

Education: Kunstgewerbeschule, Zürich

Currently resides: Switzerland

Selected honors: Numerous posters selected as “Best Swiss Posters of the Year”; 1964, First Prize for logo of Swiss National Exhibition, Lausanne; 1966, Honorable Mention, International Poster Biennale, Warsaw; Honorary Member, British Typographic Association; Honorary Member, Royal Society of Arts, London; Honorary Doctorate, Philadelphia Colleges of the Arts; Member, Alliance Graphique Internationale

Teaching: Allgemeine Gewerbeschule, Basel, Switzerland (later Schule fur Gestaltung); Philadelphia Colleges of the Arts, Philadelphia; Yale University, New Haven; National Design Institute, Ahmedabad, India

Armin Hofmann was one of the pioneers of the International Typographic Style, a new graphic design style that emerged in Switzerland in the 1950s to become the predominant graphic style in the world by the 1970s.

Ideally suited to the expanding global postwar marketplace, the style was refined at two design schools in Switzerland, one in Basel under the leadership of Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder, and the other in Zürich led by Joseph Muller-Brockmann.

Mr. Hofmann’s work with the Basel school is characterized by stark black-and-white photography, typographic restraint, and a keen awareness of graphic space. His flexible teaching method set new standards, while his ideas gained wide acceptance through his work as a teacher and through his books. His work is enormously varied, including posters, stage design, logos, typographic work, and three-dimensional designs.

October 2001 saw the publication of a newly revised edition of Armin Hofmann’s classic book, Graphic Design Manual Principles and Practice, first published in 1965.