Layout
Our readingComposition: working against the grid; type out of line and at non-right angles; layered film.
New Wave Typography
Stepped shapes, layered film collage, letterspaced and angled type, deliberate grid breaks
DocumentedFilm laid over film, the coarse halftone dot left showing: the texture is the material, not an applied effect.
Build with it
A starting grammar for a website in New Wave Typography: one inferable grid broken from inside, weight and spacing that change within a word, type set out of line and at angles, and layers of film with the halftone dot left showing.
Web translation marks our choices for the screen. Not specified by the source marks what the sources leave open. Everything else is a rule from the record below.
The same system is in the brief (Build → Brief) and in the structured data.
Colour
- paper #F2F0EA
- ink #111111
Complete as it stands. Colour, if any, comes as flat layers:
- magenta #E6007E
- cyan #009BD1
- yellow #FFD500
- deep #B8006A
The rules behind it
- DocumentedColour is not defining: a canonical Weingart poster is black and white, so ink on paper is a complete palette. From a documented finding (colour)
- Web translationAdd colour as flat layers of ink, magenta, cyan and yellow; never as a gradient. The palette is declared free and the literature records more colours of type than Swiss without naming any; flat layers match the film route. From our reading (colour), a documented finding (colour), a documented finding (technique)
Typography
Weight and width change inside the word. Reading text, like this, stays level.
The rules behind it
- From our catalogue entryChange weight inside single words and let letterspacing be inconsistent. From our catalogue entry (typography), a documented finding
- DocumentedSet type out of line and at non-right angles. From a documented finding
- Web translationUse one family with weight and width axes, so a word can change inside itself. The record names no face; changing weight and width within a word needs both axes on one family. From our catalogue entry (typography)
- Web translationKeep reading text level, untracked and uncovered. The violation must read as a departure; a sentence nobody can read is disorder, which the record rules out. From our reading (typography)
Grid
Six columns under everything. This board is laid on them: each field sits off its seat by whole columns.
The rules behind it
- Our readingWork against the grid, never without it: the grid stays inferable and each departure reads as a departure. From our reading (typography), a documented finding
- Our readingRank by departure magnitude: the element furthest from where the grid would put it reads as most important. From our reading (hierarchy)
- Web translationGive every block a seat and move it by whole columns. Whole-column moves keep departures measurable and keep reading text level. From our reading (typography)
Shape
Stepped, solid, flat. No corner is rounded.
The rules behind it
- DocumentedKeep everything flat: depth, where there is any, comes from layering on the page. From a documented finding (form)
- Web translationDraw the stepped shape as solid ink steps, each 8px lower than the last. The corrected card line names stepped shapes; the step size and weight are ours. From a documented finding
- Web translationSquare corners throughout. The evidenced work is flat cut print; nothing in it is rounded. From a documented finding (form)
Imagery
Two sheets of film, the dot left coarse and showing.
The rules behind it
- Graded by our research brief · No source attachedBuild images as layered photo-montage. From our research brief (imagery)
- DocumentedLeave the halftone dot visible, coarse and fragmented; treat the dot as a graphic element. From a documented finding (surface)
- DocumentedStack images and type as transparent film layers. From a documented finding (technique)
- Web translationOn screen, draw the screen as a coarse dot pattern (11–14px pitch) on a hard-cut sheet, blended multiply; never blur it. The texture comes from a material route, not an applied effect; the dot pattern is the screen’s form of the film. From a documented finding (surface)
- Not specified by the sourceThe sources do not say which photographs to use. Use none rather than stock; the montage can be carried by type and film alone.
Components
The sources do not specify interface conventions for New Wave Typography. These four are contemporary translations of its visual rules.
The rules behind it
- Web translationCarry emphasis with letterspacing and width, not with a fill. The record makes inconsistent letterspacing and width change a primary device; a button can use the same device. From our catalogue entry (typography), a documented finding
- Web translationKeep the button level and on its seat. Violation must stay informed and legible; a control that moves when pressed would read as disorder. From our reading (typography)
- Web translationRank by departure: the card furthest from its seat reads as most important. The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. From our reading (hierarchy)
- Web translationDisplace cards by whole columns or by one step, never by a free offset. A departure is only legible against a grid the reader can still infer. From our reading (typography)
- Web translationNever break what the user types: the violation stays on display type. The record’s devices are typographic statements; entry text has to be read back exactly. From our reading (typography)
- Web translationVary the weight within a single word. The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. From our catalogue entry (typography)
- Web translationMark the current page by departure: turn it and move it off the line. The record ranks by departure magnitude; the current item is the most important item in a menu. From our reading (hierarchy)
Motion
The energy is in the composition. Where something moves, it snaps between seat and departure in two steps.
The rules behind it
- Web translationTreat energy as composition: the evidenced work is static print, and its movement is implied. The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. From a documented finding (motion)
- Web translationWhere anything moves, show the violation as a violation: blocks snap to and away from their seats. The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. From our reading (motion)
- Web translationSnap in two steps; never ease. A stepped move reads as a jump between two positions, so the seat and the departure both stay legible. From our reading (motion)
Informed violation
Broken by someone who knows the grid. Without it, this is a different Aesthetic.
The rules behind it
- Our readingThe violation must be informed: the underlying grid stays inferable. From our reading (typography)
- Our readingNo random disorder. From our reading
- Our readingNo violation without an underlying grid. From our reading
Film and process
Over-exposure in the repro camera thickens the letter; on screen, a heavier weight does it.
The rules behind it
- DocumentedLet the process show: the marks left by materials in printing are part of the work. From a documented finding (surface)
- DocumentedManipulate type photographically, by over-exposure. From a documented finding (technique)
- Web translationOn screen, get the same thickening with weight axes, not with blur. Over-exposure fattens and softens the letter; a heavier weight on one run is the screen’s honest version. From a documented finding (technique)
The record
What it argues
The Swiss grid is a set of rules, and rules can be investigated by violating them precisely.
Someone who knows exactly what the system forbids can break it deliberately and produce something that still reads as typography rather than as accident.
- It refuses
- Both the neutrality of the grid and the assumption that abandoning it means disorder.
- It pays
- Reproducibility. Immediate legibility. Being mistaken for randomness.
- It assumes
- A viewer fluent enough in Swiss typography to register which rule is being broken.
How you recognise it
Type set with conspicuous letterspacing and weight changes inside single words, type set out of line and at non-right angles, and strata of transparent lithographic film with the coarse halftone dot left visible, so the texture comes from the material rather than from anything applied.
The diagnostic condition is informed violation: the underlying grid remains inferable, and each departure is legible as a departure — which is why the work reads as argument rather than as noise.
Swiss Style holds the grid; this attacks it from inside with full knowledge of it. Anti-Design breaks alignment without a system to break.
What carries the look
0 Elements linked. No Element is linked to this Aesthetic yet. Each row still opens its gallery.
| Typographycarries the look | Page set in Archivo. |
|---|---|
| Color | #111111#F2F0EA#FFD500#B8006A#5E5C57#E6007E#009BD1#FFFFFF as built |
| Compositioncarries the look | Nothing linked yet |
| Imagery | Nothing linked yet |
| Surfaces | Nothing linked yet |
| Motion | Nothing linked yet |
| Motifs & Symbols | Nothing linked yet |
| Techniques | Nothing linked yet |
Rules 20
By area, each labelled with what kind of claim it is.
Typography
From our catalogue entryTypography: deliberate_rule_violation; letterspacing, intra-word weight change.
Typography
Our readingThe violation must be informed: the underlying grid stays inferable and each departure reads as a departure. Disorder that leaves no system to be departed from is a different Aesthetic.
Color
Documented · Source attachedA museum-held canonical Weingart New Wave poster (Kunstkredit 76-77, 1977) is black and white, so colour is not a defining attribute of the approach.
Color
Documented · Source attachedReference literature records more type sizes and more colours of type than the minimalist Swiss predecessor, without naming any palette.
Color
Documented · Source attachedIn Weingart's Basel typeshop, letterpress was used to teach students principles of colour-mixing and printing quality.
Imagery
Graded by our research brief · No source attachedImagery: layered photo-montage.
Surface
Documented · Source attachedWeingart's New Wave posters leave the photomechanical process visible through rough, fragmented, low-resolution dot screens, and he saw the halftone dot as a self-contained graphic element.
Surface
Documented · Source attachedThe textured quality of the type comes from transparent film and collage, a material route, not from applied texture.
Surface
Documented · Source attachedWeingart worked by hand so that the marks left by materials in printing would show.
Surface
Documented · Source attachedWeingart and his students used the Xerox machine, with its sfumato quality, as a design tool.
Motion
Our readingElements snapping to and away from grid positions, so the violation is shown as a violation.
Motion
Documented · Source attachedThe 'kinetic energy' reference sources attribute to New Wave is a compositional quality of static printed work, not movement.
Motion
Documented · Source attachedEven where Greiman used video, the documented use was digitising still frames for print.
Technique
Documented · Source attachedWeingart's later posters depend on layering transparent lithographic film (film collages made with a repro camera, stacked in strata) and make full use of the lithographic process.
Technique
Documented · Source attachedWeingart worked with both lead type, with its fixed limitations, and film, with its boundless possibilities.
Technique
Documented · Source attachedType was also manipulated photographically, by over-exposure in the repro camera.
Technique
Documented · Source attachedGreiman later used video and early digital imaging: an interface to digitise still frames from video, and the Quantel Paintbox.
Form
Documented · Source attachedThe evidenced work is flat print (posters, magazine covers, books). The depth it has is illusory, made by layering on the page.
Hierarchy
Our readingRank by departure magnitude — the element furthest from where the grid would have put it reads as most important.
Ruled out, or left open by the sources
Interface
Not specified by the sourceThe sources do not specify this area; a translation may follow.
Motion
Not specified by the sourceThe sources do not specify this area; a translation may follow.
What stands behind it
Partly sourced. 9 sources attached. 1 claim graded by our research brief, no source attached.
Build guidance: recorded in 6 of 8 research dimensions. It says what usable material is recorded, never how well it is evidenced.
- No source attached
- Argument, Recognition test.
- Not researched yet
- Summary, Overall positions by area, Ornament and contrast scales, Moving it to screen, Source notes. Unresearched is not permission.
- What this record covers
- Basel/Weingart lineage and its 1980s American export.
- Imagery this record claims, and we do not hold
- Layered photo-montage is in our research brief, with no source attached yet, and we hold none we may show; type carries the layering, and the gap is declared.
- Scope
- New Wave is a 1970s Basel typographic approach that breaks the grid from inside. Register: uneven spacing, mixed weights within words, angled setting, film layering. Airbrush, gradients and imagery are our reading.
Neither is a free hand: an area research has not reached is not permission to decide on the language’s behalf.
| Research dimension | Evidence | Carries guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Composition | Specified · Graded by our research brief | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | yes |
| Colour | Left open | no |
| Density | Not specified by the source | no |
| Imagery | Specified · Graded by our research brief | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Not specified by the source: form · Specified: motif, surface, technique | yes |
| Motion | Not specified by the source | yes |
Often confused with
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