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Art & Architecture Library: 20th Century Graphic Design Collection
With over 1200 items, our 20th century poster collection features work from influential graphic designers. The majority of the collection consists of large-format Swiss advertising posters. The collection, created from two generous donations, serves as a resource for students studying design foundations, graphic design, typography, and printmaking. It also assists students gain practical skills in the fields of collections management, gallery curation, and exhibition installation.
Swiss Posters of the Year
Many of the posters in our collection were annual selections from the Swiss Federal Department of the Interior Juried Annual Poster Arts Competition. Each year, the Department of the Interior published corresponding booklets, which give context and provide details on the designers. Below are scanned versions of the booklets. They provide a good overview of the variety of posters in our collection.
Additional Poster Catalogs
Notable Names in the Collection
| Ruth Asawa | Claude Kuhn |
| Max Bill | Pierre Neumann |
| McCann-Erickson | Ikko Tanaka |
| Stephen Frykholm | Rosmarie Tissi |
| April Greiman | Niklaus Troxler |
| Armin Hoffman | Wolfgang Weingart |
| Werner Jeker | & more! |
Timeline of Swiss Graphic Design
Poster for Bühler's Beer Garden in Basel, 1890
Pre-20th century
Posters increase in popularity due to increased accessibility to printing. Most posters at this time are text-heavy lithographs.
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Promotional poster for Zermatt by Emil Cardinaux, 1908
Early 20th century
The increase of tourism promotes poster production featuring iconic images of resorts and vistas. The Swiss Federal Railways held their first poster competition in 1903 and Emil Cardinaux's influential Matterhorn image (1908) continues to influence Swiss tourism marketing today.
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Zurich International Rowing Regatta by Ernst Keller (1968)
The 20th Century
The Zurich School taught a design style founded by Theo van Doesburg, called Concrete Art. Geometric shapes, minimal information, and asymmetry defined the style, which paved the way for the "Swiss Style" after WWII.
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Pelikan pens promotional poster, Herbert Leupin (c. 1952)
The Object Poster
From 1920-1950, the Basel School was known for creating Object Posters. These designs featured large, but realistic, subjects often paired with little more than a brand name. This style helped solidify the poster's role in product marketing.
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Exhibition Poster, Armin Hofmann
The International Style
Historians consider the post-war period (1950-1970) is considered the golden age of Swiss design. The new style, spearheaded by Armin Hofmann, combined elements of the Basel and Zurich schools. The elements combined to create a structure, easily readable style with limited color palette, powerful typography, and use of photography.
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Exhibition Poster, Wolfgang Weingart (1981)
The postmodern style in Swiss poster design was born from a criticism of consumer culture. It began around 1970 and continues today. Posters were easy to interpret and more playful, but retain influences from the International Style. Technical advancements and current culture continue to push design in new directions.
Information and images from "The Swiss poster" at the Swiss National Library.
Access Our Collection
- Digital Collection
Recommended Books
100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design by
"100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design" takes a fresh look at Swiss typography and photo-graphics, posters, corporate image design, book design, journalism and typefaces over the past hundred years. With illuminating essays by prominent experts in the field and captivating illustrations, this book, designed by the Zurich studio NORM, presents the diversity of contemporary visual design while also tracing the fine lines of tradition that connect the work of different periods. The changes in generations and paradigms as manifested in their different visual languages and convictions are organized along a timeline as well as by theme. The various fields of endeavour and media are described, along with how they relate to advertising, art, and politics. Graphic design from Switzerland reflects both international trends and local concerns. High conceptual and formal quality, irony and wit are its constant companions. A new, comprehensive reference work on Swiss design. With Essays by the editors and Hans-Rudolf Bosshard, Christoph Bignens, Max Bruinsma, Jurgen Doring, Meret Ernst, Ulrike Felsing, Roland Fruh, Ariel Herbez, Richard Hollis, Martin Jaeggi, Andres Janser, Roxane Jubert, Urs Lehni, Claude Lichtenstein, Kerry William Purcell, Francois Rappo, Jorg Sturzebecher, and Ruedi Widmer. 600 illustrations
ISBN: 3037783990Publication Date: 2014-10-15
Playfully Rigid by
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. AUTHOR: The architect Claude Lichtenstein (born in 1949) was curator at the museum for organization in Zurich from 1985 - 2000. He is lecturer for architecture, design and environmental design at three Swiss universities of applied science. 370 illustrations
ISBN: 3037780908Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Swiss Graphic Design by
Martin Woodtli's works stand out in the category of graphic design. Woodtli exhausts the manifold possibilities that computer technology, print techniques and colors offer. He unconventionally uses 3D-software to create dynamic, extremely detailed, constructed and colorful 3D-graphics. Combined with multilayered vector graphics/colors and presented isometrically, Woodtli's unique aesthetics and very own microcosm speak their own experimental and futuristic language.This is the first compilation of Martin Woodtli's works in book form. Woodtli participated in Swiss Graphic Design.
ISBN: 3931126366Publication Date: 2003-09-01
Swiss Graphic Design by
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 M#65533;ller-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.
ISBN: 0300106769Publication Date: 2006-04-28
