Engelberg Truebsee

The Engelberg artist, photographer, and graphic designer Herbert Matter is considered the true founder of the modern photo poster in Switzerland. In the mid-1930s, he was the first to convincingly integrate the medium of photography into commercial graphic design, which had previously relied on drawings. Aiding him in these commissions was his thorough training as a painter, which he completed at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva before training under Fernand Léger in Paris. His poster featuring the Norwegian mitten is undoubtedly the most famous among those he designed for his hometown.

This is a copy from the second edition of 1936, best recognized by the spelling of Engelberg and Trübsee with capital letters, which was new compared to the first edition of 1935. One can only speculate about the reasons for this adjustment, which Herbert Matter may not have approved at all—perhaps the original spelling, which originated with Max Bill, was simply too modern for those responsible, or it just seemed incorrect to them.

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Engelberg – Switzerland