Château d’Oex – Vaud Alps

Not on site at the moment

The fact that the Château d’Oex Tourist Office actually had Alex Walter Diggelmann’s 1932 design printed and used it to promote itself demonstrates, first, a certain forward-thinking attitude on the part of those in charge and, second, in its boldness, makes this poster one of the first to show the general public on the streets where the future of skiing lies.

Until the late 1920s, (not only Swiss) ski posters almost always featured, alongside cross-country skiers and ski jumpers, very distinguished but also very awkward-looking gentlemen who seemed more intent on standing gracefully on their skis than on skiing quickly (which was by no means due solely to the Telemark style that prevailed at the time). Ski lifts were not even known by hearsay; short alpine skis with steel edges were just coming onto the market, and the parallel turn was also virtually unknown. But: Skiing had begun to shed its elitist image.

The joy of movement and the thrill of speed attracted a wider audience, and mountains were now something to be experienced rather than feared—a concept that Diggelmann knew how to portray brilliantly (though he was admittedly familiar with André Le Comte’s poster—see below—and thus had a model that was at least as outstanding): a ski racer on a breakneck descent, yet appearing tiny against the mighty, icy backdrop of the Gummfluh in the Vaud Alps. It is the action that counts, the self-assured certainty of being able to hold one’s own in such a setting—and to do so of one’s own free will, not because one has to. The person himself plays no role here—so why show a face?

Diggelmann (1902–1987), for his part, was—as one might expect—a master of his craft who, beginning in the late 1920s, brought new vitality to Swiss poster design with his designs, which were initially bold and angular but soon became bold and flat. Raised in Unterseen, between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, he began his career as an elementary school teacher before training as an art teacher in Bern and then as an artist and commercial designer in Paris and Leipzig; From 1928 onward, he worked as a freelance graphic designer in Zurich, making him one of the first designers without formal academic training—and, as a result, better able to empathize with his clients. In total, he created nearly 200 posters, primarily for sporting events and vacation destinations; many of them are among the best Swiss posters ever made. In addition, he designed the medals awarded by the FIS at World Ski Championships, as well as the UEFA Cup for the Cup Winners’ Cup (now the Europa League).

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