Grammo-Grafik | Record Sleeves

This is one of those posters that always come up when a more or less wordy characterisation of the “Swiss style” – whether one calls it Swiss Style, Swiss Typography, Swiss Typographic Style, Swiss International Style or even Constructive Commercial Art – needs to be backed up with concrete examples.
In fact, Gottlieb Soland’s original poster, created on the occasion of the exhibition on the graphic design of record sleeves, is an icon not only of Swiss poster history thanks to its impact achieved by means of consistent rigour – because even if the practically two-dimensional form of a vinyl record is naturally made for a strong graphic signal: To then implement this in such a strict manner requires an unconditional will for objective clarity and thus striking conciseness, which is characteristic of the Swiss School of the 1950s and 1960s.
Speaking of the Swiss School, one of its essential features, apart from a design grid that ordered the elements used, was the asymmetrical layout to create a certain tension – which is why Soland did not centre the record and text blocks, but offset them slightly to the right.
Soland (1928-2011) acquired his skills as a graphic artist in particular during his apprenticeship in the studio of Gottfried Honegger and Warja Lavater in Zurich.

extremely rare