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189188
“There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are
stronger in the contrast.”
Charles DiCkens (1812–1870), British, Author
contrast
19
con·trast \’kän- trast\ n
1 a: juxtaposition of dissimilar
elements (as color, tone, or emotion)
in a work of art
Contrast is a visual prin-
ciple that fundamentally
provides the eye with
a noticeable difference
between two things or objects—large and small, red and green,
light and dark, or hot and cold. In visual communications, contrast
is the perceptible difference in visual characteristics that makes
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th e la n guag e of gr ap hic d es i gn
(Text)
19 67
Emil Ruder: Typography
Basel, Switzerland
Emil Ruder (1914–1970) was a Swiss
typographer, graphic designer, author, and
educator instrumental in starting the Alleg-
meine Gewerbeschule (Basel School of De-
sign), as well as developing the International
Typographic Style or the Swiss School.
As a young man, he studied in Paris and
trained as a typesetter in Zurich. In 1929,
at the age of fifteen, he began a four-year
compositor’s apprenticeship and attended
the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts.
In 1948, Ruder met the artist-printer
Armin Hofmann, and they began a long
period of collaboration and teaching that
achieved an international reputation by the
mid-1950s.
Ruder was also a writer and published
a basic grammar of typography titled Emil
Ruder: Typography, which was published in
German, English, and French in 1967. This
groundbreaking book helped spread and
propagate the International Typographic
Style and became a basic text for graphic
design and typography throughout Europe
and the United States.
The International Typographic Style
was defined by sans serif typefaces and
employed a rigorous page grid for struc-
ture that produced asymmetrical layouts.
Its philosophy and tenets evolved directly
from the de Stijl movement, the Bauhaus,
and Jan Tschichold’s New Typography.
In Ruder’s work, as well as in his teach-
ings, he called for all graphic designers to
find an appropriate balance in contrasts
between form and function. He believed
that typography loses its function and com-
municative value when it loses its narrative
meaning. He further believed that typogra-
phy’s primary role in any visual composi-
tion is legibility and readability. A careful
and critical analysis of visual contrasts, or
an object (or its representation in an image)
distinguishable and distinct from other ob-
jects in a composition as well as its surround-
ing background. Contrast in a composition is
the opposite of visual harmony.
It can be achieved by exaggerating the
visual differences in size, shape, color, and
texture between compositional elements,
thereby enhancing and making a message
more immediate and understandable to a
viewer. Contrast can draw and direct atten-
tion, create a mood or emotion, and create
hierarchy and emphasis in complex informa-
tion in any visual message.
(continued on page 192)
Voice
Adelaide, Australia
adamsmorioka iNc.
Beverly Hills, California, USA
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