Jean Willi completed a six-year training course as a graphic designer in Basel and worked there and in Paris, among other places. As a designer for Olivetti and Kodak. In 1973 he started painting and drawing after a trip to Africa. In 1977 he developed his own drawing technique in which a kind of calligraphy was combined to form structures and networks. Related works were exhibited in a group exhibition in Zürich in 1982 under the title Schreibgestik together with artists such as Roman Opałka and Cy Twombly.