Ernst Keller and Josef Müller-Brockmann

This week I want to take a step back to the roots of Swiss Style. I will talk about two artists that helped pave the way for the International Typographic style. Ernst Keller is believed to be the grandfather of Swiss style and his contributions helped to shape the style into what it is today. He believed that “the solution to the design problem should emerge from its content”. The style is composed of simple shapes, vibrant colors, and meaningful imagery. Additionally, sans serif typeface became a fundamental design element, photography was often present more than illustrations, and mathematical grids were fundamental in graphic design projects.

The second artist I will be discussing Josef Müller-Brockmann, a student of Kellers. By 1957 the student became the teacher as he replaced Ernst Keller as professor of graphic design at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. Müller-Brockmann instilled many of the teachings of Keller into his own work and helped to build upon the style in many ways. Over the next few days, I will discuss select works by both artists and explain how each piece fits into the overall meaning of the Swiss movement.

Mike Joyce #10

 

Joyce, Mike. "Fugazi at Bernard's Pub". 1989.

In this piece we see another similar style to that of Joyce's earlier work. The overlapping colors and shapes along with the slanted fonts resemble the Swiss style by early artists such as Richard P Lohse, Hans Neuburg, Josef Müller Brockmann, and others. 

I loved researching Joyce's work and plan to use a lot of what I've learned from him by combining some of my modern interests with the Swiss style. One thing he didn't do too much of is use photography in his work. This is something I would like to incorporate into my work so i will be sure to continue to research other artists to find a way to make this possible. 

Mike Joyce #9

 

Joyce, Mike. "Blondie at CBGB and OMFUG". 1975.

This reminds me of a value scale one would learn for shading in art class. This piece is monochromatic, which is one of Joyce's only works that use this technique. The overall composition is extremely minimalistic, but the gradual darkening of each box adds lots of depth to the piece. What I've noticed is that a stylistic choice by Joyce is that regardless of the band, each band name is written in lowercase sans serif fonts. I'm not sure why he chose to do this, but I think it works well for his style and makes all of his pieces regardless of how different they may be flow together in unison.  

Mike Joyce #8

 

Joyce, Mike. "Dead Kennedys at Wust Radio Hall". 1985

This piece focuses mostly on minimalism. The long, colored rectangles slightly turn and overlap causing another shape to form in the middle which looks to be a star. Everything in this image is off centered but the colorful design is on slightly off centered, enough to tell, and be somewhat uncomfortable. Again, there is a lot of positive and negative space which I think works well for this piece. I may choose to do something similar to this for my poster project at the end of this course. 

Mike Joyce #7

Joyce, Mike. "The Sugarcubes at Limelight". 1992.

I think this image does a great job with positive and negative space. The bright squares and rectangles sit in the forefront which help bring the viewers eye to the large, centered text. The difference from the pale solid background helps the bright shapes stand out. What I like about this piece is how the entire composition is on an angle. I believe that if the squares and text were straight across the page the composition would be less impactful. 

Mike Joyce #6

 

Joyce, Mike. "Radiohead at the Warfield". 1997.

This piece is slightly darker than the other images we've viewed so far, only consisting of 3 colors, red, black, and white. The bright red centered text is obviously the focal point of the image. What's different about this piece from the others is that the text is completely centered. This is a bit unusual for Swiss style as it doesn't quite adhere to characteristics of asymmetry. What does fit is the font and minimalistic layout. I think that the simplicity of this piece makes it an effective advertisement.  

Mike Joyce #5

Joyce, Mike. "Velocity Girl at the Tavern". 1994.

 Unlike many of his other piece the text in this image is at the top of the page rather than the bottom, although still off centered. What I really liked about this piece was how the overlapping colors work to create a grid of their own. The Swiss grid plays a big part in the organization of this piece to assure all squares line up correctly and present the various colors. Positive and negative space in this piece can be viewed differently. Whether or not you choose to see the entire square or the overlapping colors that intersect as the positive or negative space is up to the viewer. 

Mike Joyce #4

 

Joyce, Mike. "Descendents at Whisky A Go Go". 1982.

What originally caught my attention in the piece is how the organization of the words resembles that of Hans Neuburg. The diagonal sans serif font and shallow color scheme make this a bold and simplistic piece. Although the words intersect, they are still easy to read and portray information clearly, which is an important aspect of Swiss style. Below I've attached an image by Hans Neuburg that demonstrates Joyce's connections in his work to the early artists of the style. 

 

Mike Joyce #3

 

Joyce, Mike. "The Velvet Underground at Max's Kansas City". 1970.

The image above does an amazing job in capturing the Swiss style. The off-center circles and triangle again contribute to the importance of asymmetry by using the rule of thirds. The grid system does well to keep all components in line and organized while also utilizing the positive and negative space in the image. The organization of the simple shapes reads as a boat to me. This goes to show that sometimes images don't need to be busy or detailed to tell a story. 

Mike Joyce #2

 

Joyce, Mike. "The Police at CBGB and OMFUG". 1978. 

This piece is super trippy in my mind. The overlapping colors in the circles gradually get smaller and lighter as the black becomes less overbearing. Again, the font is off centered and lowercased. The movement of this piece starts off as heavy in the left bottom corner and becomes lighter as your eye is led to the top right corner. Although this image looks very busy up closely, from a far its minimalistic.  

Mike Joyce #1

Joyce, Mike. "Social Distortion at La Semilla." 1982.

All of the designs posted for this week are from Joyce's Swissted collection. Each piece resembles that of the International typographic style and incorporates key characteristics that make it recognizable. This piece caught my attention due to the rule of thirds being used. The red circle catches my eye first, which then leads to the square boxing it in. I find this composition unique because the circle is the only round component in the image. Another characteristic is the sans serif lowercased font, which is off centered, adding to the asymmetrical layout. 
 

Mike Joyce Overview

This week I will examine works and talk about a modern artist that dabbles in the Swiss style. I've touched slightly on New York native Mike Joyce and his work as a graphic designer. He is the creator of Swissted, which is an ongoing project. Drawing from his love of punk rock and Swiss Modernism, two movements that have almost nothing to do with one another, Mike has redesigned vintage punk, hardcore, new wave, and indie rock show flyers into International Typographic Style posters. Interestingly enough, each design is set in lowercase Berthold Akzidenz-Grotesk medium, not Helvetica. 

Example 10 Mike Joyce

 

Joyce, Mike. "The Smiths at the Venue". 1983.

As I continue my research, I came across an artist that bases his work off of Swiss style designs. Mike Joyce is a solo artist and designer based out of New York.He has designed album packaging for established artists including Iggy Pop, Katy Perry, The Cars, Fall Out Boy, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Natalie Merchant, The Lemonheads, Willie Nelson, Morphine, The Replacements, Miles Davis, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Heart, The Runaways, Sevendust, Foo Fighters, Barenaked Ladies, Cursive, David Sedaris, New York Dolls, Blue Man Group, Vampire Weekend, and Aretha Franklin. He has created logos and posters for a wide variety of artists including The Strokes, Madonna, Eminem, The Stooges, The All American Rejects, Gorillaz, Raphael Saadiq, AFI, Jesse Malin, Lorde, Placebo, Jason Mraz, D Generation, Kasabian, Joss Stone, and Maroon 5.

In 2012 Mike launched Swissted, a personal art project combining his love of Swiss graphic design and punk rock by redesigning vintage concert flyers into hundreds of striking International Typographic Style posters. The image above is one of many designs showcased in Swissted. 

I absolutely love these designs and plan to continue researching Joyce so I can implement his ideas into my own work. 

Example 9 Hans Neuburg

 

Neuburg, Hans. "Zürcher Künstler - Kunsthalle Basel". 1966

Neuburg is yet another recognizable figure from the Swiss/International design movement. He worked alongside other big names like Richard Paul Lohse, Joseph Müller-Brockmann and Carlo Vivarelli where together they published the "Neue Grafik" magazine. 

Neuburgs work experiments with the use of geometric overlapping shapes, sans serif typeface, and asymmetrical layouts which are a few notable characteristics of Swiss design. This piece specifically interests me with the use of triangles. The simplistic design and the overlapping colors that creates another triangle is minimalistic yet intriguing. I believe this piece embodies Swiss design well and would be interesting to use for my poster ideas. 

Example 8 Miedinger and Hoffmann

 

A page from Eduard Hoffmann’s Helvetica notebook dated November 27, 1957.

I wanted to take a little bit of a different route with this piece and talk about a few of the most influential men in typography and how they shaped many of the sans serif typefaces we have today. Eduard Hoffmann and Max Miedinger worked together to create what is now modern-day Helvetica. Throughout 1957 and 1958, the two men collaborated back and forth, fine-tuning each character. Miedinger’s role in the process was decisive and many credit him more than Hoffmann for the creation of Helvetica. Helveticas creation and development is one of the most important accomplishments of twentieth century graphic arts. Helvetica is probably the most successful typeface in all of history.

The image above is a page out of Hoffmann’s notebook where the typeface was created. Helvetica was originally named Neue Haas-Grotesk but was changed in 1960 and translates to the word “Swiss”. Helvetica is a benchmark in the history of typography as well as Swiss design. 

Example 7 Jan Tschichold

 

Tschichold, Jan. "Sonderheft Typographische Mitteilungen". 1925.

Tschichold was born in Germany and is regarded as one of the most outstanding and influential typographers of the twentieth century. His work is distinguished by its rigorous structure, asymmetrical placement of contrasting elements, and layouts based on horizontal and vertical underlying grids. You will notice a harmonious composition of balance, white space, and straight lines throughout his designs.

A fun fact is that he is often remembered for his post-war refashioning of Penguin paperbacks.  During his career with Penguin, he re-designed over 500 books. 

Example 6 Emil Ruder

 

Emil. "Joan Miró." 1956.

Emil Ruder was a graphic designer as well as a typographer who helped Armin Hofmann form the Basel School of Design and establish the style of design known as Swiss Design. He believed in the importance of sans-serif typefaces, and clean and precise work. Similar to other artists of the movement he favored asymmetrical compositions, as well as negative space in compositions. His use of grids in design has influenced the development of web design on many levels.

This piece works well within the characteristics of Swiss design. By off centering the circles the composition becomes more interesting and you can clearly see Ruders value of negative space in this piece.

Example 5 Armin Hofmann

 

Armin Hofmann. "Giselle, Basler Freilichtspiele". 1959.

Hofmann is another influential person of Swiss design. Many believed his work and teachings to be unorthodox, but he continued to focus on the different elements of graphic design, specifically the principles of Swiss design.

In this piece we see multiple characteristics of Swiss design including photography, minimalism, typography, and layout. Part of the Swiss style is the use photography over illustrations which Hofmann clearly utilizes in this piece with the photo of the ballerina as a focal point. Other characteristics used are layout and sans serif fonts. His use of an asymmetric layout where the text alignment is flush left is a prominent characteristic of Swiss style. The overall composition of this piece falls under the minimalistic style choices where we are clearly directed where to look given its lack of colors and use of positive and negative space. 

Sources (Continually Updated)

 Bigman, Alex. “What Exactly Is Swiss Design, Anyway?” 99 Designs, 2016, 99designs.com/blog/design-history-movements/swiss-design/.

Budrick, Callie. “Swiss Style: The Principles, the Typefaces & the Designers.” PRINT Magazine, 11 Oct. 2021, www.printmag.com/featured/swiss-style-principles-typefaces-designers/.

DESIGN. “Swiss Style Web Design: Everything You Need to Know.” Justinmind, 2018, www.justinmind.com/blog/swiss-style-web-design-everything-you-need-to-know/.

Edited by Angelina Lippert, The Swiss Grid, 2020, swissgrid.posterhouse.org/.

Neilly, Ali. “Max Bill - Swiss Graphic Designer & Typeface Designer.” Shillington Design Blog, 2 Apr. 2019, blog.shillingtoneducation.com/max-bill-tbt/.

Novin, Guity. “Chapter 42; The Swiss Grid System -- and the Dutch Total Grid.” A History of Graphic Design, 2016, guity-novin.blogspot.com/2011/07/chapter-42-swiss-grade-style-and-dutch.html. 

MasterClass. “Swiss Design: 5 Elements of Swiss Graphic Design - 2023.” MasterClass, 2022, www.masterclass.com/articles/swiss-design#6ZzQPJ3EQhz4Jgnsg8hpc4.

Simon. “Jan Tschichold (1902 - 1974) - Swiss Typographer.” Encyclopedia of Design, 21 Feb. 2023, encyclopedia.design/2023/02/21/jan-tschichold-swiss-typographer-designer/.

Multimediaman. “Max Miedinger.” MULTIMEDIAMAN, 11 May 2013, multimediaman.blog/tag/max-miedinger/.

https://www.swissted.com/ 

Joyce, Mike. Stereotype, 2023, www.stereotypenyc.com/about/. 

Example 4 Max Bill

Bill, Max. "Horitzontal-Vertikal-Diagonal-Rhythmus". 1942.

This piece of Bills' takes on a completely different style than his other piece "Wohnbedarf". Although, it still fits into the principles set forth during the Swiss design movement. Unlike his other works that focus primarily on the grid system, composition, and typefaces, this piece includes the components asymmetry, geometric abstraction, and simplicity. The movement created by the black lines add intricacy to this piece and make it pleasing to view. I believe adding this piece to my research is valuable for variety in style. 

 

Example 3 Max Bill

Bill, Max. "Wohnbedarf". 1930.

Max Bill was yet another prominent figure in the history of Swiss Design. It all started in 1927 when Bill joined the Bauhaus and studied under many artists including Wassily Kandinsky. This early piece showcases the Swiss grid system that many designers were beginning to incorporate into their work. Bill focused on a very mathematical approach when creating his designs and is recorded stating “I am of the opinion that it is possible to develop an art largely on the basis of mathematical thinking.” The Swiss grid has a unique way of creating a composition that is both busy and readable. It's what I would call controlled chaos. I find Max Bills work intriguing given the changes made to his designs over the years as he developed into his style. This is something I plan to continue to research. 
 

Example 2 Josef Müller-Brockmann

Müller-Brockmann, Josef. "beethoven". 1955.

Josef Müller-Brockmann was a student of Ernst Keller as well as another influential figure in the Swiss design era. His work focused heavily on the grid system to achieve organized and orderly results. He ultimately took over Kellers's teaching position at the Kunstgewerbeschule where he worked to spread the ideology and principles behind the Swiss aesthetic beyond Europe. 

He is highly regarded for his posters like the one above. He uses text, simple graphics, and photographs to create rhythmic compositions. He valued things like rhythm, harmony, and mathematical or geometric compositions in his work which is obvious in the above image. He believed that music was an abstract art and portrayed it through his various posters including this one. 

When looking at this poster I see almost what seems to be a record with the text being the center. The lines, shape curvature, and balance between positive and negative space cause your eye to follow around the image while almost completing the image to create a full circle. The minimalistic approach to this piece works well to entice the viewer by making connections while also bringing attention to the main text in the middle. I personally gravitate towards this design and hope to implement its principles into my own work. 
 

Example 1 Ernst Keller

Keller, Ernst. "Spitzen und Leinen- Stickereien aus den Sammlungen der Gewerbemuseen Winterthur und Zuerich". 1927.

The piece above was created by Ernst Keller, who was often referred to as the "Father of Swiss Design". He began with a teaching position in a school in Switzerland in 1918 where his teachings marked the beginning of the grid systems that Swiss Style became known for. Although his style would be changed over time into the present day International design style, his ideas of sans serif typefaces, asymmetrical design, and bold graphics held as an influential benchmark in design history. 

The image above is clear example of early Swiss design style from its asymmetrical layout, to it's clear uses of positive and negative space that help to direct the viewers eye to the bold red lettering. The simplicity of this design caught my attention right away. The layout of the black and white resembles that of a maze which helps to create movement through the image. This example is perfect for learning the main principles of Swiss design and will help aid in my own creations using this style.  

Swiss/International Design Style

Swiss Style originated in Switzerland in the 1940s and became better known as International Style in the 1950s when designers worldwide began to adopt the style. The three common principles of Swiss Style are cleanliness, readability, and objectivity. International Design begins with a mathematical grid considered to be the most legible and harmonious way for structuring information. In addition to the grid, this style involves an asymmetrical layout, san serif typefaces, and the favoring of photography over illustrations. 

Throughout the duration of this five-week course I plan to use this blog to better my understanding of the Swiss/International Style and learn how to create successful designs using this style.