2 A Brief Overview
This website’s periods are based on the Swiss National Library’s website. While there can be many ways to understand Swiss graphic design and not everyone will classify designers and design innovations the same way, the Swiss National Library offers a basic, yet easy-to-follow blueprint to understand Swiss design and its changes. If you are curious, be sure to check out their website, too.
1 The 18th Century: Lithography
This refers to the printing technique that was developed during the 18th century. As such, it is not really a period of design, but it must be considered as an essential step for posters to develop into what they are today. Lithography allowed for easy reproduction of works, in a time when copying documents quickly was non-existent.
As it stands, lithography entails using a grease marker on a slab of stone to draw something. After this, the slab is treated with two distinct substances: the first time with an acidic liquid that will prepare the greasy design; and the second, with water. After this, oil-based painting is applied to the slab, and since it was treated with water previously, the painting will not stick to the non-drawn, non-greasy areas, since the humidity of the water will repel it.
If you’d like to know more about the method and the period, be sure to check out 1. the Swiss National Library’s entry for it and 2. MoMA’s explanation and videos about lithography!
Oesch, Sebastian. Lebensmittel-Verein Zürich – St. Annahof – Fluss- & Meerfische – Genossenschaft mit 25’000 Mitgliedern. 1914. Public domain through Wikicommons.
2 The 19th Century and beyond: Tourism
Landolt, Otto. Vitznau. 1928. Public domain through Wikicommons.
Colombi, Plinio. St. Moritz – The World’s White City – Engadine – 6000 Ft. – Switzerland. 1929. Public domain through Wikicommons.
At first glance, the connection between tourism and graphic design is not obvious, and tourism itself is not a period of design. However, and following the Swiss National Library’s cue, touristic posters, much like lithography had an everlasting effect on posters and design at large.
Nowadays we find out about new places to visit or cool getaway adventures through our friends’ social media fees or through internet advertisements that invite us to go to the beach and relax. Yet, back in the day, when posters did the bulk of communicating things to people, they also did the bulk of advertising to people.
As such, touristic posters normalized the usage of posters as alluring, captivating, and as a medium that would interact with people at large. Consequently, during the 20th century they started focusing on providing a “general visual statement, with one eye-catching and symbolic image depicting a destination’s picturesque qualities and tourist appeal” (Swiss National Library – The Beginnings: Tourism Posters, 2018). It does not mean that touristic posters were popular at once and then they faded into oblivion, but rather, how touristic posters by advertising beautiful locations around Switzerland and the world, jump-started the burgeoning interest in graphic design.
3 & 4 Beginning of the 20th Century: The Zurich Concretists & Basel’s Object Poster
If you consult any resource regarding Swiss graphic design, like the Poster House’s Swiss Grid, they will emphasize something: the differences between Zürich and Basel. This is not to say that all Swiss graphic design should be understood through a strict division between cantons, but it might be helpful to understand why certain clusters of designers and designs can be more readily associated with each other, yet they hardly seem to be connected with designers and designs not within that circle.
Around the 1920’s, after touristic posters started following more strict guidelines, Zürich and Basel were being influenced by different art techniques, innovations, perspectives, and ideas. The Poster House’s Swiss Grid associates Zürich with an interest on design based on a grid and Basel with a less emphatic focus on that.
This can be the basis for understanding Zürich Concretists vs. Basel’s Objectivists. Zürich was more entrenched in logical, geometrical, precise shapes as a response to Germany’s Expressionism and taking inspiration from movements such as De Stijl, which sought to create universality in art through basic colors–– think primary ones––, lines, abstract shapes, geometric patterns, and decorative elements that anyone could understand. In contrast, Basel’s Objectivists were more concerned with universality based on clarity: if posters were the way to communicate and interact with people, people had to know precisely what they were seeing.
Check out the Swiss Grid’s website for a deeper contrast between the two schools or the Swiss National Library’s overview of Concrete and Object. Some information from David Raizman’s “Josef Müller-Brockmann: ‘schutzt das Kind!’ and the Mythology of Swiss Design” (Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context. 2021) might also be particularly useful for understanding this.
Cylix, Walter. Blumenfest – Blumencorso mit Prämierung – Zürich 30. u. 31. Aug. 1930. 1930. Public domain through Wikicommons.
Stöcklin, Robert. Métraux Larven. 1926. Public domain through Wikicommons.
5 Mid to late 20th Century: The International Style
The most famous period in Swiss graphic design. Buckle up!
Having gotten here, you might already have an idea as to why the Swiss style became particularly prominent after World War II. For one, and as many have pointed out–– Swiss National Library; Swiss Grid–– Switzerland did not have to worry about rebuilding itself after the war since it had remained neutral. As such, it could focus on other matters directly related to the arts, like design. Likewise, many schools started offering more courses on graphic design due to the opportunity it presented for the country to better itself (Poster House PDF, 13).
In addition to this, designers started trying to mix and match techniques, ideas, and innovations that had been developed in previous periods and different countries, which led to a very distinctive template with bold and striking letters–– usually with similar fonts––, specific color palettes–– think red paired with white and black––, and a minimalist, sleek look based on “precision” and “zero ornamentation” (Swiss National Library – The International Style 1950 – 1970, 2018). This uniformity came in handy for Switzerland, since it offered a way to create uniform, rational, calculated, and carefully crafted advertisements that made obvious the relevance of graphic design and design itself (Poster House PDF, 2, 13 – 15).
Perhaps the easiest way to summarize the Swiss Style is to think that the uniformity stemming from all this simply gave way to something attractive, innovative, modern, and alluring (Poster House PDF, 2, 13).
Hofmann, Armin. Form & Farbe: Gewerbemuseum Winterthur. 1951. Public domain through Wikicommons.
Müller-Brockmann, Josef. Juni-Festwochen Zürich. 1957. Public domain through Wikicommons.
6 1970 and Onward: Postmodern Posters
This might be the most difficult period to explain in Swiss graphic design, since it has given way to many different ideas, perspectives, and innovations surrounding design, its techniques, and its applications.
While perhaps no one characteristic will suffice, think about postmodern graphic design as the period that opened the doors for designers to develop their own styles, away from specific guidelines and schools; but also a moment in which it became easier to keep up with what others were doing in faraway places. Suddenly, designers could rapidly incorporate new ways to do things according to other countries and new perspectives depending on ideas that interested them personally thanks to emerging technologies.
Geissbühler, Karl Domenic. Semiramide. 1992. Fair use through Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Mendell, Pierre, and Klaus Oberer. Plastics + Design. 1998. Fair use through Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Search
Contact
Proudly powered by WordPress