Altitude: Contemporary Swiss Graphic Design

Book Description

A new wave of intellectually rigorous and iconoclastic Swiss designers are carving their niche in a new graphic language. By combining traditional high quality "Swiss Style" with advanced media, they are giving rise to a progressive style of visual expression. Seven years after publishing Swiss Graphic Design, we present Altitude - a new generation of flourishing contemporary designers, giving insight into the impact, essence and diversity of the work and evaluating the significant evolution of illustration and typography in recent years.

An increasing number of designers are working internationally with interdisciplinary design practices in typography, vector graphics, photography, interiors and web design. They bring about an experimental, playful and humourous element while maintaining the minimalist approach and precision that gives Swiss Design its universally recognized trademark.

Altitude is an expansive volume that showcases and examines current trends as well as providing an analysis of contemporary Swiss Design through visuals, texts, interviews and commentary from the designers and editors themselves.

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Swiss Graphic Design

Tineline confusion

To go boldly with Helvetica

Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965
Richard Hollis
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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History of the Poster

Josef Muller-Brockmann

Max Huber

Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text

Grid Systems in Graphic Design

ASIN: 0300106769

Book Description

Swiss graphic design and “the Swiss Style” are crucial elements in the history of modernism. During the 1920s and ’30s, skills traditionally associated with Swiss industry, particularly pharmaceuticals and mechanical engineering, were matched by those of the country’s graphic designers, who produced their advertising and technical literature. These pioneering graphic artists saw design as part of industrial production and searched for anonymous, objective visual communication. They chose photographic images rather than illustration, and typefaces that were industrial-looking rather than those designed for books.

Written by noted design authority Richard Hollis, this lavishly illustrated volume looks at the uniquely clear graphic language developed by such Swiss designers as Theo Ballmer, Max Bill, Adrian Frutiger, Karl Gerstner, Armin Hoffman, Ernst Keller, Herbert Matter, Josef Müller-Brockmann, and Jan Tschichold. The style of these artists received worldwide admiration for its formal discipline: images and text were organized by geometrical grids. Adopted internationally, the grid and sans serif typefaces such as Helvetica became the classic emblems of Swiss graphic design.

Showcasing design work across a range of media, including posters, magazines, exhibition displays, brochures, advertisements, books, and film, this essential book shows how many of the Swiss designers’ modernist elements remain an indispensable part of today’s graphic language.

Customer Reviews:

Swiss Graphic Design.......2007-06-27

This is a nice, well made book. It's a great reference for designers or art directors that need to put a Swiss spin on things.

Tineline confusion.......2007-03-01

Hollis's book, while extensive in its documentation and admirable in its visual organization of the Swiss developments, comes to several conclusions which should be questioned. The first is the disproportionate and misguided prominence afforded Theo Ballmer as a prime influence stemming from his experience at the Bauhaus. Whatever Ballmer's influence as a poster designer in the 20s was, he had gotten his essential training in the Basel school, which underwent its own ongoing and largely independent modernist development, prior to Ballmer's very brief time at the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus influence is deemed minor by the emerging Basel school, and Ballmer's later influence in teaching photography and lettering has to be considered a lesser one.

Significant also is the confusion in reporting influences in development of the cutting edge Geigy Pharmaceuticals graphics program where the influences of Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder as educators of the leading Geigy designers are missing. While this is inferred on page 162 in the statement that "the Geigy style originated in the teaching at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule," the key influences in Basel--Hofmann and Ruder--are not mentioned.

Similarly, Hollis attributes Müller-Brockman's "conversion" to the influences of Lohse and Vivarelli, the evidence being the concert hall posters of 1951 and 52. While this is definitely a move in that direction from an earlier illustrative style, the most convincing change, and the style by which Müller-Brockman is widely known, emerged on the hiring of graduates of the Basel school under Armin Hofmann in 1955. This means that Hofmann and Ruder pre-date Müller-Brockman's mature style instead of being placed as p. 214 as a separate and later development--and not as a precursor feeding the larger Swiss development from a more humanistic perspective than the more constructivist direction of the Zürich school. One can argue about which contributed most to the international prominence of Swiss design, but Hollis's own statement p. 215 regarding the world-wide significance of Hofmann's Graphic Design Manual, Principles and Practice, on education is telling. Müller-Brockman's more objective approach was probably more influential in the world of corporate graphics.

Hollis betrays a bias, perhaps, in his strange analysis of Hofmann's Tell poster and omits such key poster achievements as the "Switzerland in the Roman Era" (1957). It is unfortunate that Hollis did not interview Armin and Dorothea Hofmann. They are few of the remaining key figures from the era of Hollis's investigation.

To go boldly with Helvetica.......2007-02-28

The 'Swiss style' comes alive in this fascinating and very comprehensive study. If you design for print and ever wondered how some everyday graphic principles and typefaces originated the answer is in these pages. The story begins in twenties central Europe with a merging of modern art, the Bauhaus, Russian constructivism, craft printing techniques, photography and strong cultural attitudes in German speaking Zurich. All of these influences produced a graphic language of simplicity and directness that spread across Switzerland and one would expect nothing less from a country associated with order and precision.

Interesting as the text is I was particularly impressed with the several hundred illustrations (all with extensive captions) and as this is a book about a visual style and basically a printed one the choice of posters, examples of typography and many spreads from brochures, magazines, books all work well to complement the words.

I was interested in the several pages devoted to the magazine 'Neue Grafik' (New Graphic Design) which was the flagship publication of the Zurich modernists. It only ran for seventeen issues (from 1958 to a double issue seventeen and eighteen in 1965) but was really the only opportunity for designers outside Switzerland to see what was going on. Strangely, despite the design aiming for clarity, reading the issues was a bit of a chore. Three languages were set in each edition in one typeface and one size with paragraphs stretching sometimes to hundreds of words with no par indents or line space. However each spread looked fresh and lively thanks to the publication's grid.

I think it is worth commenting on the book's production. Designed by the author it uses a two column grid but nicely many pages just have one column of text and the space for the other text column is divided into two and used for illustrations and captions. The many variations of these column elements really make the pages sparkle and I think many publication designers could learn something by studying how the text and graphics blend together throughout the book.

Richard Hollis is to be congratulated on writing and designing a book that will surely be regarded as the definitive study about the origins of the Swiss Style.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Josef Muller-Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design

Average customer rating:

this is excellent!

Josef Muller-Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design
Paul Rand
Manufacturer: Lars Müller Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3906700895

Book Description

Edited by Lars Muller.

7.5 x 10.5 in.
415 illustrations

Customer Reviews:

this is excellent!.......2001-03-07

A good introduction to Muller-Brockmanns work, the book takes us from his very early works to later exhibitions and poster design. It even mentions 'Grid Systems', which I am a firm disciple of. Graphic Design is a subject of which to have strong oppionions and Lars Muller has just that. I enjoyed his comments in the preface which were valid and sound. All in all an important walk through past design, which should stay contemparay for times to come.

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Swiss Design 2004

Manufacturer: Lars Muller Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3037780444

Book Description

Presented here by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture are the 20 winners of this year's national design competition and their prize-winning works, along with illustrations and a descriptive essay by the jury. Swiss Design 2004: Innovation focuses on innovative aspects of single works by these young designers within a framework of individual interviews. These interviews explore the sometimes complex subject of innovation through specific questions from the points of view of Industrial Design, Jewellery, Graphics/Typography, and Design Theory.

Essays by Paul Elliman, Renate Menzi, Joachim Huber and Sibylle Omlin.

Book Description

This broad selection of Swiss architecture, graphic design, and design from 1950 to 2006 demonstrates that in this context, playful humor and clarity are by no means opposites, but a highly unusual duo of qualities that mingle and interpenetrate. The question addressed by this publication is: are these examples from three professions, various regions and languages, and a period of more than fifty years bound together by a common denominator? No parade of luxury items, but talents and ideas finding material expression and clients with the courage to embrace new "inventions,” presented with examples from architecture, graphic design, and design: movie theaters, swimming pools, pedestrian bridges, gas stations, posters, journals, record and CD covers, books, web design, furniture, and the legendary TEE train (Trans-Europe Express). This publication is accompanied by an exhibition at the Kornhausforum in Bern, which then goes on to additional locations throughout the world.

Swiss Design 2002: Netzwerke / Réseaux / Networks

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Swiss Design 2002: Netzwerke / Réseaux / Networks

Manufacturer: Lars Muller Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Swiss Design 2004

ASIN: 3037780010

Book Description

"I always feel really good between two stools; it may be a bit uncomfortable, but there's a lot of freedom in that border zone." So begins the quixotic Swiss Design 2002, the published results of the Swiss Federal Design Competition, a juried award that recognizes the best of Swiss fashion, visual communication, industrial, jewelry, and stage design. From 260 submitting designers the jury selected 24 prizewinning projects, including garments by Lela Scherrer, Han Phu Tran, Rachel Imboden, and Daniel Hermann, photographs by Gian Paolo Minelli and Ruth Erdt, paper by Happypets Products, an electric comfort mattress pad by Simone Lüling, illustrations by Anne Crausaz, and book packages by Gilles Gavillet. As evidenced by a web-like layout of texts and images, Swiss Design 2002 takes the network as its theme, and considers the rehabilitation of some apparently questionable practices and the necessity of professional networks.

Essays by Martin Heller, Ruedi Baur, Patriza Crivelli, Sabine Dreher, Christian Muhr, Meret Ernst and Ralf Michel.

Book Description

Edited by Michel Fries & Thomas Bruggisser. Introduction by Martin Heller.

6.75 x 9.5 in.
300 illustrations

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful design collection.......2001-06-11

One of my favorite books to consult for inspiration, full of varied styles of work but all of very high quality.

Pathfinder: A Way Through Swiss Graphics

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Pathfinder: A Way Through Swiss Graphics
Happypets
Manufacturer: Gingko Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1856693678

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RARE and HARD TO FIND one of a kind book.
a buy?
Exhibition of bad taste
nice coffee table book
Fabulous New Typography from Switzerland

Swiss Graphic Design

Manufacturer: Gestalten Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Currently, the region with the world's highest density of high-quality designers is indisputably Switzerland. Swiss graphic design, which is traditionally sparing, is now becoming an international sensation: its designers know how to often take radical creative approaches that are, at the same time, not conceited and give a light impression. The designers' creative approaches are then realized with expert craftsmanship and an obsession for detail. A further element that has helped the popularity of Swiss design a great deal is that its language of forms, which is often reduced, suits the Internet particularly well. For one, Swiss Graphic Design gives an overview of the most talented Swiss designers by documenting the high standard they have for the most typical applications such as vector-graphics, layout, fonts and illustration by showing some of the most remarkable works. The book also impressively proves how important it is for creative professionals the world over to develop their own local solutions and to be consistent in doing so. That is the reason why the book is a must-have not only for graphic designers, but for all who are interested in the visual. The famous Swiss author and professor of semoiotics André Vladimir Heiz could be won to write the preface. His insider point of view is more than just informative and provides for a defintion of the state-of-the-art of Swiss Graphic Design between tradition and revolution.

Customer Reviews:

RARE and HARD TO FIND one of a kind book........2006-03-11

I totally agree with, Stefan Bucher (California, USA), this is a wonderful book... a must have for any graphic designer, its a one of a kind book that is very limited, RARE and HARD TO FIND book. All the examples and great pioneers and examples of Swiss Graphic Design are in here... Truely Awesome Book, love all the visuals of great work....

a buy?.......2002-05-02

I got this book as a gift. At first, I found it very interesting however, there's always better ones.Though, this is a good book for those who don't like to read... pictures and pictures of stuff. It's somewhat inspirational.

Exhibition of bad taste.......2002-01-25

Good things first - "Swiss Graphic Design" is well put together and well designed. However, while this book contains a high level of creative work and page after page of bright pictures, I found much of the content rather shocking and explicit. Rather than classic, beautiful design, this book focuses on very trendy material. But if that's what you want and sexually explicit work doesn't bother you, then you might enjoy all the interesting design work.

nice coffee table book.......2001-09-17

A very handsome cover at first glance, and quite extrodinare inside also.

Some awesome work from buro destruct, francois chalet, norm, remo, etc. you know... the elite swiss guys that have a nack for detail.

Overall, if your into graphics design, and currently have designers block, pick it up for a while, and get inspired again. But don't expect anything other than that. If not, it's still worth it in your graphics library for reference, and makes a nice coffee table book.

Fabulous New Typography from Switzerland.......2000-12-30

Who knew they still had it in them? Excellent examples of young Swiss typography abound in this handsome volume.

The truly beautiful work is loosely grouped by style, which works surprisingly well and makes for enjoyable browsing.

The only thing vaguely disappointing about the book is the 20-page essay lead-in, which, for me, falls into the "Impenetrably Lofty Writing on Design" category. Blah blah blah. It looks very nice on the page, but it's painful, joyless reading. Turn to the informative writing in Intro's first "Sampler" volume and Ginko's "Visible Music" to see it done right. (Mind you, this is all personal bias. I may just be too dense to comprehend this particular piece.)

Book Description

Karl Gerstner is one of Switzerland's preeminent graphic designers. In 1959, he and Markus Kutter founded the agency Gerstner + Kutter, which later became Gerstner, Gredinger, and Kutter (GGK). Before long, the agency had become one of the largest internationally acclaimed advertising firms in Switzerland. After withdrawing from active agency work, Gerstner designed the corporate identities for such companies as Swiss Air, Burda and Langenscheidt, in addition to working as worldwide identity consultant and designer for IBM. In visual language, Gerstner recapitulates his now 50 years of active work as a graphic designer. The ups and downs of a designer's professional life are vividly illustrated with samples of work that were both realized and rejected by his clients. Describing in detail how he managed to be such a successful and groundbreaking designer, Gerstner relates a narrative that is essential to the history of postwar design. Astutely written and brilliantly designed, visual language follows in the tradition of Gerstner's earlier period-defining classics, Designing Programs and Compendium for Literates.

Customer Reviews:

Mr Gerstner and the true meaning of Akzidenz Grotesk........2004-02-04

I first be came aware of the work of Karl Gerstner while at art college in the late Fifties. I bought a copy of his first book 'Cold Art?', written in German, so I couldn't read it but I could follow the excellent analytical diagrams explaining the basis of mathematical abstracts as produced by Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers, Max Bill, Richard P Lohse, Gerstner and others. Thirteen pages of 'Cold Art' and spreads from his other books are also shown in this beautiful book of Gerstner's career.

His creative work from the fifties and sixties always used the typeface Akzidenz Grotesk (Standard Medium in English speaking countries) for text and headlines, despite, as he says, there being no italic. To make this type more complete he redesigned it as Gerstner Program and his work on this and another of his faces, IBM Original is explained in detail in the book.

His books, publication design, typefaces, logos, ads, packaging and thoughts on design and related areas of creativity are well presented throughout the book. I especially liked the last few pages which have some examples of his amazing computer generated art (in spreads from the Swiss magazine Basler Magazin) and this is why I find Gerstner so interesting, his graphic work covers such a wide area and interestingly, in the book, he also provides an intellectual underpinning of his creativity.

BTW the same publisher has produced a book devoted to Gerstner's paintings, graphics and computer art (ISBN 3775791515).

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