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Home A brief history of the poster in Switzerland Typography, photographic posters and the ‘Swiss Style’

Typography, photographic posters and the ‘Swiss Style’

The art of letterpress printing and later lithography formed the basis for ‘functional’ typography at the end of the 1920s.

The new trends influenced Germany’s ‘New Typography’ and the first typeface posters by the painter Max Bill, who consistently used only lower case text in all his posters.

Eric de Coulon created the first independent typeface posters for Parisian companies as early as the 1920s. In almost all his posters, typography is an integral element of the stylised design.

The Swiss poster designers were influenced in their work by the Bauhaus style of the 1920s on the one hand and by Russian poster design on the other. The 1929 Russian exhibition at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Zurich with the famous exhibition poster by El Lissitzky was groundbreaking for many Swiss graphic designers.

The highlights of Swiss photo posters include the colourful photo posters by Walter Herdeg around 1935 for St. Moritz and the world-famous photomontages by Herbert Matter.

Max Bill: Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich – um 1930 in Zürich, 1977. Image: Artifiche AG.
Max Bill: Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich – um 1930 in Zürich, 1977. Image: Artifiche AG.
Eric de Coulon: Tissot antimagnétique, 1935. Image: Artifiche AG.
Eric de Coulon: Tissot antimagnétique, 1935. Image: Artifiche AG.
El Lissitzky: Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich - Russische Ausstellung, 1929. Image: Plakatsammlung Basel via Wikimedia Commons.
El Lissitzky: Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich - Russische Ausstellung, 1929. Image: Plakatsammlung Basel via Wikimedia Commons.
Walter Herdeg: St. Moritz, 1937. Image: Artifiche AG.
Walter Herdeg: St. Moritz, 1937. Image: Artifiche AG.
Herbert Matter: Engelberg, 1936. Image: Artifiche AG. Matter designed around ten unique photomontage posters between 1934 and 1936, after which he moved to the United States, where his international fame was established.
Herbert Matter: Engelberg, 1936. Image: Artifiche AG. Matter designed around ten unique photomontage posters between 1934 and 1936, after which he moved to the United States, where his international fame was established.

The typographically strict design style of the 1950s and 1960s became the leading graphic design style of the post-war period. The ‘international style’ or ‘Swiss style’ used the typographic grid and sans serif fonts, renounced illustrations and used colour sparingly; the posters have a very precise and structured appearance. Deliberately chosen shapes, areas and lines were composed according to strict rules and helped Swiss commercial art to achieve a worldwide reputation. The representatives of the international style who had a lasting influence on Swiss graphic design included Armin Hofmann, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Richard Paul Lohse, Max Bill, Carlo Vivarelli and Hans Neuburg.

Armin Hofmann: Kunsthalle Basel – Henry Moore – Oskar Schlemmer, 1955. Image: Artifiche AG.
Armin Hofmann: Kunsthalle Basel – Henry Moore – Oskar Schlemmer, 1955. Image: Artifiche AG.
Josef Müller-Brockmann: Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, 1964. Image: Artifiche AG. Müller-Brockmann’s typographically pure posters bear witness to his close relationship with the constructive art of the ‘Zurich Concretists’, which is evident in all his graphic works. His typographically perfect concert posters with their clear, logical and at the same time aesthetic arrangement of images and text are masterpieces of Swiss poster art.
Josef Müller-Brockmann: Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, 1964. Image: Artifiche AG. Müller-Brockmann’s typographically pure posters bear witness to his close relationship with the constructive art of the ‘Zurich Concretists’, which is evident in all his graphic works. His typographically perfect concert posters with their clear, logical and at the same time aesthetic arrangement of images and text are masterpieces of Swiss poster art.
Carlo Vivarelli: Forme nuove in Italia, 1954. Image: Artifiche AG.
Carlo Vivarelli: Forme nuove in Italia, 1954. Image: Artifiche AG.
Hans Neuburg: Zürcher Künstler in der Kunsthalle Basel, 1966. Image: Artifiche AG.
Hans Neuburg: Zürcher Künstler in der Kunsthalle Basel, 1966. Image: Artifiche AG.

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