| Creator | Hans Neuburg |
| Printing year | 1958 |
| Sheet size (cm) | 100×70 |
| Printing technique | Linocut |
| Printer | Bollmann |
| Condition | A |
| Asking price | 2'100 CHF |
| Categories | Design & Architecture |
Original Poster designed by Hans Neuburg on the occasion of the exhibition Konstruktive Grafik at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich in 1958, which featured works by the Zurich graphic artists Richard P. Lohse, Hans Neuburg and Carlo Vivarelli: all of them apologists of a design based on a precise structure, expunging any evidence of personality or artistry and entirely in the service of information – the style that was later and still is called Swiss Style (which does not mean that it was unrivaled; some considered it cold, repetitive, formalistic).
The exhibition organized by Josef Müller-Brockmann – another representative of the strict Zurich School, who had even taken over the graphics class at the School of Arts and Crafts a year earlier – even proved to be the nucleus of the programmatic “Neue Grafik – Die Internationale Zeitschrift für Grafikdesign und verwandte Themen”. Between 1958 and 1965, the editorial collective consisting of the four graphic designers published 18 issues, in which protagonists of the Swiss school, in particular the Zurich faction, conducted an essential discourse not only on the fundamentals of constructive design, but also on the fundamentals of communication in an increasingly interwoven world.
In other words, the International Typographic Style, as it is also known, is not just about posters, but also about logos, advertisements, brochures and even the design of trade fair stands – in short, about corporate identity.
In retrospect, it turned out that the magazine, which was published in three languages, had such an influence on professional colleagues in the western hemisphere that it became something of a bible in terms of graphic design, making the factual and conceptual approach known, especially in the corporate design of increasingly globally active companies, which was just beginning to develop. So the “Neue Grafik” may not have made the triumphant advance of the “Swiss style” possible in the first place, but it certainly spread its impact much more widely. And all this because of an exhibition that was hardly covered in the press.
maybe of interest as well: