Emil Ruder

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Emil Ruder (1914–1970), Swiss typographer and graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann helped to found the Basel School (Schule für Gestaltung Basel) and a graphic style known as the Swiss Style. The Swiss Style was defined by the use of sans-serif typefaces, and employed a page grid for structure, producing asymmetrical layouts. Ruder first began teaching at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule of the swiss city of Basel in 1942. In 1948 Ruder met the artist-printer Armin Hofmann. Ruder and Hoffman began a long period of collaboration. Their teaching achieved an international reputation by the mid-1950s. By the mid-1960s their courses were maintaining lenghty waiting lists.

Ruder was a contributing writer and editor for Typografische Monatsblätter. Ruder published a basic grammar of typography titled Emil Ruder: Typopgraphy. The text was publishd first in German, then in English. 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. In 1962 he helped to found the International Center for the Typographic Arts in New York.