Service Aérien d’Hiver | DC-2 of Swiss Air Lines

Undoubtedly the most impressive, because the most dynamic, original poster by Herbert Matter (1907 – 1984), designed on behalf of the former Swiss National Tourist Office (probably as part of a collaboration with Swissair, or Swiss Air Lines at the time) to advertise Switzerland as a winter destination, which – really up to date – can be reached from Germany, France, Great Britain and even Spain by the latest US aircraft model: the DC-2, which is seen here roaring over the Bernina massif with Piz Palü.

Matter’s posters, composed of several black and white photographs and colored on the gravure plates, are something of a revelation on Swiss billboards in the mid-1930s; by breaking with everything that passers-by knew up to that point, he brings a completely new aesthetic to the tourism industry. Although Walter Herdeg in particular (after the use of photographs on Swiss posters began cautiously in 1928) uses them consistently as a stylistic device in his works for St. Moritz, he’s always adding graphic elements and, above all, the laughing sun, which give the compositions a somewhat lovelier impression. Matter, on the other hand, completely dispenses with a personal touch and relies entirely on the cool and technical – an approach that is unmistakable and thus naturally becomes a personal touch par excellence.

Matter’s first posters in 1928 were still very much in the Art Deco style before going to Paris, where he studies with Fernand Léger and works for and with a number of greats (Le Corbusier, however, is often mentioned – although despite several efforts and telephone calls, I’ve never found any evidence of this anywhere that is even halfway reasonable). Giants always stand on the shoulders of other giants; in Matter’s case, in addition to Léger, these were the Russian Constructivists around El Lissitzky and Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, with whom he also had close contact in Paris.

The German version of this poster, “Winter-Luftverkehr”, is also available.

maybe – as a contrasting program – of interest as well:

Bern – Centre for Local and Alpine Flights