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Swiss Design Poster

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14 of 16 persons found the following review helpful.
Tineline confusion
By Kenneth J. Hiebert
Hollis's book, while extensive in it is documentation and admirable in it is visual institution of the Swiss developments, comes to various conclusions which will have to be questioned. The original is the disproportionate and misguided prominence afforded Theo Ballmer as a prime influence stemming from his experience at the Bauhaus. Whatever Ballmer's influence as a poster architect in the 20s was, he had gotten his necessary training in the Basel school, which underwent it is own ongoing and for the most part independent modernist development, prior to Ballmer's very brief time at the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus influence is deemed minor by the emergent Basel school, and Ballmer's later influence in instructing photography and lettering has to be considered a lesser one.

Significant also is the confusedness in reporting influences in development of the cutting edge Geigy Pharmaceuticals graphics program where the influences of Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder as educators of the leading Geigy designers are missing. While this is inferred on page 162 in the statement that "the Geigy style originated in the instructing at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule," the key influences in Basel--Hofmann and Ruder--are not mentioned.

Similarly, Hollis traits Müller-Brockman's "conversion" to the influences of Lohse and Vivarelli, the proof being the concert hall posters of 1951 and 52. While this is unquestionably a move in that direction from an earlier illustrative style, the most convincing change, and the style by which Müller-Brockman is widely known, emerged on the hiring of graduates of the Basel school under Armin Hofmann in 1955. This means that Hofmann and Ruder pre-date Müller-Brockman's mature style rather of being placed as p. 214 as a distinguished and later development--and not as a precursor feeding the more spectacular Swiss development from a more humanistic perspective than the more constructivist direction of the Zürich school. One may argue regarding which contributed most to the global prominence of Swiss design, but Hollis's own statement p. 215 with regards to the world-wide significance of Hofmann's Graphic Design Manual, Principles and Practice, on education is telling. Müller-Brockman's more goal to be attained approach was probably more influential in the world of corporate graphics.

Hollis betrays a bias, perhaps, in his strange analysis of Hofmann's Tell poster and omits such key poster accomplishments as the "Switzerland in the Roman Era" (1957). It is ominous that Hollis did not consultation Armin and Dorothea Hofmann. They are few of the remaining key figures from the era of Hollis's investigation.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
To go boldly with Helvetica
By Robin Benson
The 'Swiss style' comes alive in this arousing and attention holding and very comprehensive study. If you design for print and ever wondered how some every day graphic principles and typefaces originated the answer is in these pages. The story begins in twenties central Europe with a merging of progressed art, the Bauhaus, Russian constructivism, craft printing techniques, photography and strong cultural complex mental states in German speaking Zurich. All of these influences formulated a graphic language of simplicity and directness that disseminate all over Switzerland and one would suppose not one thing less from a country affiliated with order and precision.

Interesting as the text is I was peculiarly impressed with the various hundred illustrations (all with broad captions) and as this is a book when it comes to a visual style and basically a printed one the choice of posters, examples of typography and a great deal of spreads from brochures, magazines, books all work well to supplement the words.

I was fascinated in the various pages devoted to the magazine 'Neue Grafik' (New Graphic Design) which was the flagship publication of the Zurich modernists. It only ran for seventeen issues (from 1958 to a double issue seventeen and eighteen in 1965) but was actually the only chance for designers outside Switzerland to see what was going on. Strangely, in spite of the design aiming for clarity, reading the issues was a bit of a chore. Three languages were set in each edition in one typeface and one size with paragraphs stretching now and again to hundreds of words with no par indents or line space. However each disseminate looked fresh and lively thanks to the publication's grid.

I think it is worth commenting on the book's production. Designed by the author it uses a two column grid but nicely a heap of pages just have one column of text and the space for the other text column is disunited into two and applied for illustrations and captions. The a lot of variations of these column constituents genuinely make the pages sparkle and I think a lot of publication designers could learn something by studying how the text and graphics blend together all around the book.

Richard Hollis is to be congratulated on writing and designing a book that will surely be regarded as the definitive study in regards to the roots of the Swiss Style.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Great overview of the Swiss style
By soph
I decisive to buy this book after looking at the Helvetica DVD and was so inspired by Swiss design, I had to check out this book. I was not disappointed, pages of full colour images, and elaborate explanations regarding the art and the designers intended communication. Fantastic resource for graphic design students!

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