Happy Moments in the Swiss Winter

Herbert Leupin was barely 21 years old when, in late 1937, he won the competition to design the poster for the 1939 Swiss Federal Shooting Festival in Lucerne. Leupin’s comparatively fresh-looking design was ultimately not produced, as the political situation in Europe had escalated so dramatically in the meantime that, as part of the «spiritual national defense» campaign, a more conservative design by Ernst Hodel was printed, one that emphasized military readiness. However, this did not change the fact that the newcomer Leupin had made a name for himself within just a few weeks.

Buoyed by this success, he showed up unannounced—with samples of his work— in 1938 at the office of the director of the Swiss Tourism Board in Zurich—and he actually left with a commission to design a poster that the national tourism authority could also use abroad to attract winter sports tourists to Switzerland. Leupin’s fusion of a clock and winter —Leupin’s first tourism poster, mind you—still sparkles with wit and joie de vivre today, and Director Adolf Guggenbühl was so enthusiastic that he acquired all rights of use for 800 francs (which would be just under 7,000 francs today). The design ultimately appeared in over 80 newspapers across half of Europe and was printed as a poster in five language versions.

You might also be interested in:
St. Moritz