Orell Füssli | Lithography and Offset Printing – Gravure Printing – Letterpress Printing

Even those who are not particularly drawn to works designed (primarily) with typographic elements will find it hard to deny the appeal of this original poster by the Zurich master Otto Baumberger. The areas rendered in various colors complement the dominant text block, set in sans-serif type, in a way that proves to be the ideal solution for promoting—in a modern and effective manner—the wide range of services (letterpress, gravure, lithography, offset, cartography, …) of a printing house steeped in tradition: the Orell Füssli Artistic Institute in Zurich, which dates back to 1519.

Those in charge would have taken great care to promote themselves only with an outstanding poster, for two reasons. First, of course, was the fact that they themselves were already printing thousands upon thousands of posters—a practice that, despite fierce competition (in Zurich alone!) from the Graphische Anstalt Wolfensberger or the Fretz brothers, was to remain the case. Second, and most importantly, given their in-house design department, they needed to present themselves as being at the cutting edge—which was particularly significant in 1928, as the painterly poster, which had been dominant until then and painting-style poster—almost always created by visual artists—was being challenged by a more functional design, created using purely constructive or (typo)graphic means, which came from one of the first commercial graphic designers, fresh out of the School of Applied Arts.

Seen in this light, it was no wonder that Otto Baumberger was chosen in the late 1920s to strike this balance between warmth and objectivity: Like no other Swiss poster designer, he was able to switch nimbly between realistic landscapes, photorealistic product depictions, abstract logo concepts, and elegant Art Deco works.

More about Otto Baumberger:
Lake Zurich