Typobiography looks back over the long and prolific career of the Swiss designer and typographer. Bringing together several texts by Jost Hochuli himself, contributions by well-known figures (including a preface by John Morgan and an interview with Robin Kinross) and a corpus of previously unpublished archival images, this monograph aims to raise interest in book design, and especially the inspirations and personalities that marked out the designer’s career.
Typobiography is a visual monograph, which develops in several thematic sections the questions that have guided Jost Hochuli’s practice over his sixty-year career, and in particular his conception of design as an essential factor in the legibility of a text and the transmission of knowledge. Each part is abundantly illustrated with works specifically digitized and displayed in a layout designed by Jost Hochuli himself, to create a reference work on the designer’s work.
The designer has just celebrated his 90th birthday in 2023, yet no monograph of his work has been published since Printed Matter, Mainly Books in 2002. This book will provide a much-needed update on the last twenty years of Jost Hochuli’s career, as well as on the renewed interest in his work, particularly as an author, among younger generations.
The publication of Typobiography follows on from Jost Hochuli’s numerous books already published by Éditions B42, Detail in typography (2015), L’Abécédaire d’un typographe (2015) and Systematic Book Design? (2020).