| Hans-Rudolf
Lutz was
born in Zurich in 1939. After completing a four-year typesetting apprenticeship
with the Orell Füssli printing company in Zurich, and continuing
a career in the industry with the typographer Arthur Kümin and later
the printer Anton Schöb, he left Switzerland in 1961 to travel through
Europe and North Africa. In
1963, he resumed his education in typography and design at the Schule
für Gestaltung in Basel where his teachers included Emil Ruder and
Robert Büchler. From 1964 to 1966, Lutz was the leader of the Expression
Typographique group in Paris, at Studio Hollenstein, producing a range
of graphic design. Hollenstein had developed the first photosetting machine,
and the group responded by trying to produce an aesthetic that, in its
modernity, matched the new technology. On
his return to Zurich, Lutz set up his own studio and publishing company,
Lutz Verlag. He wrote, illustrated, typeset and produced nine books about
visual communication. The last ones that he pubished, 'Typoundso'
and 'Ausbildung
in typografischer Gestaltung' archive his own design
work from the last thirty years. He also published sixteen titles by other
designers and writers. From
1983 to 1994, he was visual director of the avant-garde electronic music
and multimedia performance group UnknownmiX. After the group disbanded,
he continued to provide slide shows and visual contributions for live
events. But Lutz was first and foremost an educator. He taught at the
schools of design in Zurich and in Lucerne for over thirty years, and
founded the typography department in Lucerne in 1968. He also carried
out assignments at colleges from the Hochschule für Künste in
Bremen to Rhode Island School of Design. Hans-Rudolf
Lutz died on the 17th of January 1998. |
