Swiss graphic design history documented through artefacts and articles exploring designers, studios, and the development of visual communication and typography.
Switzerland gave the world the International Typographic Style, the grid-based, sans-serif approach to graphic design that became a prime visual language of the second half of the twentieth century. The archive documents this tradition through scanned editions of the Die besten Plakate des Jahres poster awards from the 1950s and 60s, design publications, and profiles of Swiss designers including Müller-Brockmann, Celestino Piatti, Armin Hofmann, and Max Huber.
Membership from £2.49/month unlocks articles researched and inspired by the artefacts in the collection.
Advertising Design, Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content, Studios & Collectives
Gerstner, Gredinger + Kutter's advertisments for Merkur and the problem of ideographs, with a translated article by Masaru Katzumie from Graphic Design 15, April 1964
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Design Archive Feature, Designer Profiles, Members Only Content, Regional Histories
Max Huber was born in 1919 in Switzerland. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Zurich where he excelled in graphic design and photography. Huber worked across advertising, packaging, design and industrial design. He had a distinctive style that skillfully blended bright hues with photomontage.
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Design Archive Feature, Design Education, Movements
A short free-to-access feature on Swiss Design. The movement was influenced by Bauhaus and De Stijl, sought clarity and visual unity, making it a powerful force in global graphic design that remains influential today.
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Movements, Book Reviews & Press Releases, Design Education, Regional Histories
Founded in 2015, Triest Verlag für Architektur, Design und Typografie have published notable works on graphic design history, including biographies of Othmar Motter, studies on Eugen Gomringer’s typography and poetry, Ernst Keller’s teachings. Thier latest book The Birth of a Style, focuses on the influence of the Basel Educational Model on the evolution of Swiss graphic design into the renowned international style.
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Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content, Poster Design, Regional Histories
“Der Druckspiegel” typographic supplement May 5, 1967, was focused on a selection of the winning entries from Die besten Plakate des Jahres featuring over fifty winning entries.
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Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content, Poster Design, Regional Histories
The 1960 awards presented 420 poster entries from Swiss designers. Notable winners included Robert Büchler's typographic poster for the Museum of Applied Arts Basel and J. Müller-Brockmann’s Der Film poster for the Museum of Applied Arts and Gerstner + Kutter's asymmetric typographic poster for National-Zeitung SA Basel.
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Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content, Poster Design, Regional Histories
As part of an ongoing series showcasing Swiss poster designs from the 1950s and 1960s, this article features 1961 poster entries of Die besten Plakate des Jahres (The Best Posters of the Year) 1961. Originating in 1941, Die besten Plakate des Jahres initially served as a platform for the evaluation and showcase of Swiss posters.
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Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content, Poster Design, Regional Histories
Forward and a selection of poster designs entered to the Die besten Plakate des Jahres 1963. Featuring the work of Hans Hartmann, Jörg Hamburger, Jost Hochuli, and Armin Hofmann.
Read ArticleExplore designers central to Swiss graphic design including Josef Müller-Brockmann, Emil Ruder, Armin Hofmann, Max Huber, Wolfgang Weingart, and Karl Gerstner. See also Swiss International Style and 1950s graphic design history.
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