Plakate

important representative of pictorialism, a movement of the late 19th century, which aspired to
painterly effects in their pictures. «I knew that was actually museum photography, hardly to be
found in the art trade anymore», he remembers. Inside the gallery, the knowledge about photography
he had acquired by himself was transferred to real works of art – and to a new format, the
exhibition space.
«To me, that was an eldorado of photography», says Hanns Schmid. As he kept returning to the
gallery, more and more often he got into conversation with its owner. And so it happened that in
1983 Hanns Schmid became the gallery’s curator for contemporary photography – no longer practising
photography himself, but evaluating and communicating it. He had changed to a different
side. Practical work with photography had become intellectual analysis.
Under Hanns Schmid’s direction, the Galerie zur Stockeregg developed into a small centre for contemporary
photography in Switzerland. Apart from exhibitions, he also organized lectures on the
history of photography that were well attended. Another one of his objectives as curator was to
promote lesser known talents, and, at the same time, the understanding of photography in Switzerland.
Thus in 1984 he organized an exhibition with pictures of Peter Gasser, a young landscape
photographer. Gasser’s pictures followed the tradition of the American Ansel Adams – a proponent
of the concept of straight photography, which emphasized qualities of photography itself, as for
example depth of field, thus deliberately opposing the painterly demands of pictorialism. Although
Ansel Adams’ pictures were already expensive collectors’ pieces at the time, photography in Switzerland
was not of such high collector’s value. Yet the Peter Gasser exhibition was a success and
entailed great interest. During his years at the gallery Hanns Schmid contributed to improving the
reputation of contemporary photography in Switzerland. Apart from exhibiting, he also kept alive
selected photographers’ works in book form. Just as he had done with photography, he also taught
himself book design. The publications he was responsible for during his time at the gallery, followed
American examples: One page – one picture, with text beside it, to let the viewer focus on
the photographs. In exhibition- and especially in book design, Hanns Schmid felt there was a fusion
of imparting and creating.
In 1986 Hanns Schmid left the Galerie zur Stockeregg to take over the Union Bank of Switzerland’s
department for cultural activities. After a short time though he felt the increasing desire to do
more creative work himself, rather than to organize events. He thus returned to the book as a medium
and established his own publishing house, Edition Schmid. His first publication dealt with
the archives of the Basel photographers’ dynasty Höflinger. Later came books on art and design
teaching. In 1987, he also developed the concept of the Swiss Grand Prize Photo Competition for
the Union Bank of Switzerland, together with designing the accompanying catalogue and exhibition.
It was his preference for books and for designing in general that were to take him further
from now on.
The Flower in the Desert
It was an encounter with Fritz Gottschalk, an internationally renowned graphic designer and cofounder
of the successful agency Gottschalk+Ash that definitively led Hanns Schmid onto the path
of designing. He showed his books to Fritz Gottschalk, who in turn welcomed and encouraged his
enthusiasm for designing, but also suggested to him that he «learn to do it properly». This positive
provocation was the decisive stimulus for Hanns Schmid. Fritz Gottschalk thereafter introduced
him to a friend of his, Wolfgang Weingart. Hanns Schmid was not aware of this Basel typographer’s
degree of prominence at the time. As a great book lover, Wolfgang Weingart appreciated
Hanns Schmid’s publications, recommended that he further improve his skills and to that end apply
to the Basel School of Design. In 1989 Hanns Schmid took up his studies of visual communication
in Basel. This internationally renowned school still stood for what it had been committed to especially
in the 1950s and 1960s under the designers Emil Ruder, Armin Hofmann and finally, Wolfgang
Weingart: as opposed to the more anonymous, constructive-concrete style of the «Zurich School»
of graphic design at the time, the Basel school was less dogmatic in representing its ideals. Although
there was a preference for graphically reduced and elementary forms here as well, a sensual,
intuitive and poetic expression was welcomed. The school’s programme gave the students
freedom and time to perform their tasks in a process-oriented way and to become absorbed in
them, to keep on trying out and experimenting in order to finally achieve effective sensory impressions,
using reduced creative elements.
In courses on motion graphics Hanns Schmid realised how illusions can be generated by rapid succession
of elementary parts. Lightning effects can be produced or colours can appear where in reality
there are no colours at all. In typography class he was intrigued by the emblematic nature of
script: what looks like a simple form is read as a meaningful letter. Yet typography itself is a means
of expression. By positioning alone and by small typographical changes, a word can say more than
what we read. In sign-writing Hanns Schmid further improved his sense of shapes. No matter if
an «S» is painted with a brush or constructed on the computer – it takes great sensitivity to make
this letter appear to be standing upright, instead of leaning to either side. The approach of the
Basel school was just what Hanns Schmid had pursued before as a photographer and a curator: to
acquire a sense for the subtleties of perception and the precision in expression.
In graphic design, all things communicate: the words, the pictures, the typography, the colours,
the shapes, but also the empty space. Like a multivoiced choir all these elements must be brought
to life. In this process, the designer is the composer as well as the conductor. He chooses the composition
of the voices, he harmonizes them, he defines the pace, he determines the melody, but
he also sets the pauses. For it is only in contrast to silence that the voices attain their true power.
Or, as Hanns Schmid puts it: «If you are able to deal with the empty space, then you essentially
know what design is.» This insight finds an expression in Hanns Schmid’s liking for the desert regions
of North Africa and Arabia, which he visited in his later photographical travels. «There are
very few things in the desert», he says remembering those places, «and if for once there has been
a little rain, and the flowers appear, the effect is all the stronger.» Only in the context of sparseness
does the subtle develop its full effect.
Sensuality and Significance
In graphic design, not only is a sensual experience created, but also messages are transmitted. A
colour, a shape or a picture are not only meant to evoke a certain feeling in the viewer, but also
to convey a meaning. In design, aesthetics meet semantics, sensuality meets significance. Throughout
Hanns Schmid’s works such combinations of sensual-subjective perception and significantsupraindividual
narrative can be observed.
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