Good Design, Good Business – Geigy Exhibition

Posted on July 20, 2009July 20, 2009 Posted in Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic StyleTagged graphic design, grid system, International Typographic Style, minimalism, modernism, Swiss, swiss style12 Comments

Geigy

Honestly, I can’t get enough of the awesome work done by the Swiss chemical company Geigy. Their in-house design studio was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style during the 1950s and 1960s.

Earlier this year the Design Museum Zurich held an exhibition that featured much of this amazing work. The exhibit coincided with one of my favorite design books of all-time, Corporate Diversity : Swiss Graphic Design by Geigy. If you don’t have this book, you need to get a copy. It’s a must have. There’s a Flickr group with photos of the exhibit, as well as a nice online gallery on the Dwell site. A short film was also made about the exhibit.

Swiss Graphic Design: Precision and Presence

Posted on July 10, 2009July 10, 2009 Posted in Design, Events, International Typographic StyleTagged exhibit, graphic design, International Typographic Style, museum, posters, swiss style2 Comments

Swiss Graphic Design Exhibit Image above by Ryan Nelson.

Man, I wish I lived in Minneapolis right now. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has an exhibit titled Swiss Graphic Design: Precision and Presence that features a series of 20 Swiss posters dating from 1950 to 1985. It has been on display since January and I’m bummed that I’m just hearing about it now because it ends this Sunday! It’s good to see that such a great era in design is still being respected and passed along. We need more exhibits like this. I really have to try to curate one here in NYC.

I apologize for the bad photo, it’s the best I could find, but I did manage to find two Flickr sets of the exhibit. One by Joe Kral and the other by Ryan Nelson. Enjoy.

Corporate Diversity : Swiss Graphic Design by Geigy

Posted on March 23, 2009March 23, 2009 Posted in Books, Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style, MerchTagged corporate, graphic design, grid system, International Typographic Style, medical, minimalism, modernism, swiss style6 Comments

Image above is from Things To Look At.

Here’s a great book that’s just been released by Lars Müller Publishers titled Corporate Diversity: Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy, 1940–1970. Designed by Norm and set in their typeface Replica (thanks Jonathan!), it features the brilliant work of the in house design studio at J. R. Geigy AG, most of which was created for the medical industry. Geigy was based in Basel and the work helped spread the International Typographic Style with its minimal approach and by employing designers such as Karl Gerstner, Jörg Hamburger, Toshihiro Katayama and Armin Hofmann.

Corporate Diversity displays Swiss graphic design at its best and rivals the classic ABC Verlag book, Publicity and Graphic Design in the Chemical Industry. It makes a great addition to any collection.

A short film was created on the exhibit that accompanied the book.

You can also see more images of the book here and here or purchase a copy for yourself from Amazon.

Das Erbe der Schweiz

Posted on February 5, 2009February 5, 2009 Posted in Design, International Typographic StyleTagged graphic design, helvetica, International Typographic Style, josef müller-brockmann, Otl Aicher, posters, swiss style, wim crouwel10 Comments

Das Erbe der Schweiz (The heritage of Switzerland) is a sexy new poster by the super talented Xavier Encinas to celebrate the second anniversary of his blog Swiss Legacy. This poster honors the legendary designers that pioneered “International Typographic Style” which include: Ernst Keller, Theo Ballmer, Jan Tschichold, Herbert Matter, Max Bill, Emil Ruder, Josef Muller-Brockmann, Paul Rand, Max Huber, Otto Aicher, Armin Hofmann, Adrian Frutiger, Wim Crouwel and Karl Gerstner.

Offset Litho
PMS 877 C
148 gsm
Pacesetter Matte Text FSC Mixed
Printed in Canada by Hemlock
–
Edition of 100 only.
Each poster comes with a certificate of authenticity.

You can purchase it here for 50€.

Anyone Can Swiss

Posted on February 4, 2009February 4, 2009 Posted in Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style, TypographyTagged graphic design, grid system, helvetica, International Typographic Style, swiss style, Typography18 Comments

I find this site kind of insulting but at the same time very funny. Anyone Can Swiss, by Dirk+Weiss, is a satire on the Swiss style of design. Type in some text, select the between Helvetica Light, Ultra Light, Roman, Heavy and Bold, select a type size and hit the Swissfy button. What comes out (above) is your text in white, in Helvetica, on a black canvas.

It’s a great laugh and I definitely get the joke but I hope that people don’t think it’s this easy to design in the Swiss style. Far from it.

Mercatdelgust Poster

Posted on February 3, 2009February 4, 2009 Posted in Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic StyleTagged graphic design, grid system, International Typographic Style, posters, swiss style2 Comments

Swiss style inspired poster by Spain based firm Bisgràfic. They sent me an explanation of the info on the poster, but I think I deleted it by accident. Oops!

*UPDATE*
They re-sent me the explanation.

“It’s all written in catalan, but I’ll explain you. It is about a market. The Taste Market is a fair where you can find every kind of foodstuff that comes from the cultivation of the earth. In the poster there is a mixture between two elements: the earth and the food. The earth is green, like the nature, the grown fields, … and the food is orange. Both things are shown with the most elementary symbol: the round, symbolizing the plate, the earth, the food.”