The poster and its maker
Joost Schmidt was a German typographer and Bauhaus teacher. His best-known graphic work is the poster for the school’s 1923 exhibition in Weimar. He studied at the Bauhaus between 1919 and 1925, including training in its wood-carving workshop.
Several forms of teaching
Schmidt subsequently taught lettering and led work in sculpture, advertising, printing and graphic design. His teaching addressed geometry, elementary forms and their relationships in space. That range places his graphic practice alongside experience in making and teaching three-dimensional work.
What to compare
Begin with the exhibition poster, then compare its organization with the problems involved in arranging letters and bodies in space. Treat this as a question to test through individual examples, rather than assuming a single geometric formula explains his output. His career is especially useful for studying how a school’s public graphic identity relates to what happens in its workshops.