Swiss Design

Swiss Design

The Swiss Design originated in the 1940’s and 50’s that was the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid-20^th Century. Swiss design also known as International style. This style has simplicity, legibility and objectivity. This style was led by the designers Josef Muller-Brockmann and Armin Hofmann. The work from this style was the most effective means of communication. They make use of sans-serif typography and photography.

The Swiss graphic designers were influenced by Jan Tschichold’s 1928 book Die Neue Typographie (The new Typography) which outlined these principles and how typography should be seen as the art of communication. The Swiss design was also influenced by the emigration of designers to Switzerland feeling Nazi occupied Germany and also the ideas of William Morris and the Modern Movements in Art. The Akzidenz-Grotesk was the most typeface used in the New typography then later it became the norm in Swiss graphic design. It was most likely for its clarity and precision, and the designers mainly used it in its lowercase form. Typography was used as Asymmetrical Compositions with sans serif typography placed in flush left and ragged right. Using mathematically constructed grids, photography and placing information clearly and factual.

Design was defined as ‘a socially useful profession’. Ernest Keller (1891-1968) was a graphic designer, lettering artist and a teacher at the Zurich kunstgewerbeschule (school of applied art), where he developed a professional course in design and typography. He was the key figure in the evolution of the international typographic style. His emphasis was legibility and simplicity; he did not look for the specific solution in Design but said that ‘solution should emerge from its content’. He initiated a climate of excellence in Swiss design.

Theo Ballmar (1902-1965) and Max Bill (1908-94) who linked earlier constructivist graphic design with the new movement that formed after the 2^nd World War. Ballmer studied under Ernest Keller and at the Bauhaus. Rigourous use of grid combined with De Stijl, rectilinear forms, primary colours and using an artimethic grid of horizontal and vertical. Bill was a Swiss architect, painter, graphic designer and sculptor. He studied at the Bauhaus (under Gropius, Meyer, Moholy, Albers and Kandinsky). In 1931 wrote a manifesto “Art Concert” Advocated a universal art of absolute clarity based on controlled arithmetical construction. He made use of simple case typefaces which he saw as being the ‘concrete element in his designs’.

Max Huber (1919-1992) He was born in Swiss. He is a graphic industrial and exhibition designer based in Milan. Complex and distinctive visual arrangements with overlapping bold colours and photography collaborated with Max Bill. His clients included La Rinascente  stores, Olivetti, Automobile club Italy, Monza cars, De Agostini Geographical institute.

References:

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•       Swiss Design : Design Is History. 2014. Swiss Design : Design Is History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/home/swiss/. [Accessed 29 December 2014]

•        Swiss Graphic Design. 2014. Swiss Graphic Design. [ONLINE] Available at: http://swissgraphicdesign.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 29 December 2014].