Joost Schmidt ( Wunstorf, 5 January 1893 -

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, 2 December 1948) was a German typographer, a teacher and master at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

, and later a professor at the College of Visual Arts,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He was a visionary typographer and graphic designer who is best known for designing the famous poster for the 1923 Bauhaus Exhibition in Weimar, Germany.

Studies

Schmidt studied art at the Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of Fine Art in Weimar, before becoming a student at the Bauhaus School from 1919–1925, training in the wood-carving workshop. He became the master student of Max Thedy and received his diploma in painting in the winter semester of 1913/1914. When he first came to Bauhaus, Schmidt started a sculpting apprenticeship with Johannes Iiten and Oskar Schlemmer. As time went by, he became very proficient with applied graphics, having his poster displayed at the Bauhaus exhibition in 1923.

Teaching

Joost Schmidt taught

lettering Lettering or Lettering design is an act or result of artfully drawing letters, instead of writing them simply. Lettering is considered an art form, where each letter in a phrase or quote acts as an illustration. Each letter is created with attent ...

at the school from 1925–1932; head of the sculpture workshop from 1928-1930. He was also head of the Advertising, Calligraphy, Printing, and Graphic Design department from 1928 to 1932. His focus was on geometry and shapes being included in the overall designs in art. The concepts that he taught were the contrasted theory of both elementary form and bodies being applied to space. In the years of 1929-1930, he taught life and figure drawing classes for upper division work.

Family

Joost was one of three children, and endured a difficult upbringing. He pursued his work as a graphic designer despite much resistance from the Nazis. After receiving his diploma in 1914 in painting, he served in the military and was briefly a prisoner of war until he returned to his work in Germany in 1918. In 1925, he married the Bauhaus student Helene Nonne.

Gallery

File:Joost-schmidt-mechanical-stage-design-1925-1926-ink-and-tempera-on-paper-64-x-44-cm1.jpg, ''Mechanical stage design'' by Joost Schmidt 1925. File:Joost Schmidt Bauhausheft 7 1926.jpg, Booklett cover by Joost Schmidt 1926.

References

Academic staff of the Bauhaus German typographers and type designers 1893 births 1948 deaths People from Wunstorf {{Germany-academic-bio-stub