Heller: You are dedicated to the painstaking craft of type and typography. You produced much of your most important work using hot metal types. What did you think when digital typography was introduced and so many typographers used the medium to create anarchic typography?
Weingart: That my work was mostly done with hot metal types comes from the fact that I have been around for a long time! We were the first Swiss design school that, in November 1984, had Macintoshes in my typeshop, it was a gift from Steve Jobs and Clement Mok. This reality could be a proof that I am open for almost everything. In fact, in the Basel typeshop we had hot metal, lithographic film, and the electronics all together. My first principle to every student was: “Use every technique to solve the problem.” Josef Albers said, in 1933, at Black Mountain College, “Open the students’ eyes.” That’s an important part of my mission in our “First Summer Program Basel 2005.”
Heller: What has been significantly gained or lost with digital-based typography?
Weingart: You can compose micro-typography much better than in hot metal types. But you still have to know the existing rules exactly, even the ones from hundred years ago.
…
Heller: Do you still teach typography the same way you did when designers had to cut and paste letters together? Or have you accepted new technologies?
Weingart: We use electronics only when we really need the new technologies. A lot of work is done quicker by hand.
Heller: As a teacher, you are a strict formalist. But given the capacity of the computer to enhance the expressive aspects of typography, do you allow students an opportunity to experiment with form?
Weingart: Everything is allowed in my classes when it makes sense!
Heller: Having been a leading figure in typography, do you foresee (or do you see now) shifts in practice that are unprecedented, or are we returning to a kind of stasis in terms of classical and traditional work?
Weingart: Not for me. Design is like fashion: the skirts are once mini, and then as long as possible. But I believe we always have to move our backside into the future with a great respect to the past. This political viewpoint makes enemies, and a lot of wonderful, good friends.
