"The most valuable of his legacies was the example of his whole life as a graphic artist: a life without any complacency, in constant quest of improvement." Jost Hochuli
Will Baus was born on the 16th December in St. Gall, Swiss. In 1909, he studied embroidery design at the Polytechnic for Textile Design St.Gall for 4 years. In 1927, He expanded his studied by attending courses in the arts and Crafts department of St.Gall Technical College, under Fritz Gilsi, Wilhelm Meier and Alfred Staerkle. In 1931, he worked at a house painter in Zurich. In the winter 1931, he took a winter semester at Offenbach-am-Main Technical Institute, School of Arts and Crafts, under a legendary typographer, Prof.D.Rudolf Koch.
In 1933, he established his own studio. A year later, together with Nora Anderegg and Albert Kohler, he had an exhibition about lettering graphics, bookbindings, lithographs at the St.Gall Art Museum. In 1939, He was hired to teach at St.Gall Technical college. In 1967, He was promoted to be chief instructor at St.Gall Technical college. Even in his retirement in 1975, his passion to teach didn't stop. he still continued to teach of few hours of lettering instruction until Spring 1979
How do I know Will Baus was simply lucky coincident. I would have never known him if I didn't received the booklet from Typotron. It's a great example of a student show his gratitude. jost Hochulli designed and edited the wonderful Typotron-Hefte no 6. I attracted to his hand of lettering. It may not look then most elegant or beautiful letters but I has a strong stroke with personality and confident. "Even before the Second World War he produced works which show another source of inspiration: the Bauhaus of Weimar and Dessau. Just as he felt the influence of Koch for a whole lifetime, Willi Baus was also concerned with the ideas of the Bauhaus and the modern movement in general" Jost Hochuli