Ueli Kaufmann

Ueli Kaufmann

Ueli Kaufmann is a graphic and type designer who researches in the field of type design and typography. He studied Graphic Design and Visual Communication at the Royal Academy of Arts KABK in The Hague (NL) and the Zurich University of the Arts ZHDK, went through a trainee-program at Dalton Maag in London, and holds a Masters degree in Typeface Design from the University of Reading (UK). In his master’s thesis, he researched the design and spread of famous Basle Renaissance printer Johann Froben’s early Italic Types. The practical part of the thesis resulted in the design of the «Froben Antiqua» typeface family, which was awarded with a Certificate of Typographic Excellence by Type Directors Club New York in 2016.
Since October 2016 he studies for a PhD under Prof. Dr. Schneemann and works as a research assistant for the project «Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited (SGDTR)»

Supervisors

Prof. Dr. Peter J. Schneemann, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Departement für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften
Prof. Dr. Arne Scheuermann, Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB, Forschungsschwerpunkt Kommunikationsdesign

Doctoral project

Typedifferent – The Role of Type Design in Modern and Contemporary Swiss Graphic Design

Through an analysis of visual and textual elements, this graduate thesis plans on reviewing 1. the role of typeface design in Swiss graphic design and typography in various cases and various times, 2. how it contributed to the construction and reception of the label «Swiss Graphic Design and Typography» and 3. in how far this role or the label were and still are reflected in self-initiated works.
As part of the SNF-Sinergia project «Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited», this study will lead to a more differentiated view on seemingly clear cultural identities as Swiss Graphic Design or Modernism and will create new knowledge about the active and passive formation of a canon in the field of graphic design and its influence on the discipline.

Research priorities

Visual communication, graphic design, typography, type design