Robert Hardmeyer

Robert Hardmeyer was born in 1876 in Zurich and died in 1919 in Wallisellen. He was a painter, illustrator and graphic designer. After studying at the ‘Kunstgewerbeschule’ (School of Arts and Crafts) in Zurich, he worked as a teacher for flower drawing between 1894 and 1899. From 1907 he ran a private school for illustrating and painting in Zurich. He saw his graphic design career merely as a way to support his preferred passion of illustrating schoolbooks and children’s books, of which he even wrote a few. However, his poster work (most notably for the Zurich wine merchant J. Diener) sets him apart as one of the pioneers of the art of the poster: his designs with simple shapes, large areas and bold colours were of highly professional quality and contributed much to Swiss poster art around the turn of the 20th century.

Posters by Robert Hardmeyer