![1959 - Gewerbemuseum Basel - Alte und neue Formen in Japan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/1959_-_Gewerbemuseum_Basel_-_Alte_und_neue_Formen_in_Japan.jpg)
The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...
style that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
during the 1950s. The International Typographic Style has had profound influence on graphic design as a part of the modernist movement, impacting many design-related fields including architecture and art. It emphasizes cleanness, readability, and objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a
grid
Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to:
Common usage
* Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road
* Grid reference, used to define a location on a map
Arts, entertainment, and media
* News g ...
,
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
typefaces like
Akzidenz Grotesk
Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin. ''german: label=none, italic=no, "Akzidenz"'' indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tick ...
, and
flush left, ragged right text. The style is also associated with a preference for photography in place of illustrations or drawings. Many of the early International Typographic Style works featured
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
as a primary design element in addition to its use in text, and it is for this that the style is named. The influences of this graphic movement can still be seen in design strategy and theory to this day.
History
![Kunsthalle Basel Gubler Zurkinden 1959](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Kunsthalle_Basel_Gubler_Zurkinden_1959.jpg)
The style emerged from a desire to represent information objectively, free from the influence of associated meaning. The International Typographic Style evolved as a modernist graphic movement that sought to convey messages clearly and in a universally straightforward manner. Two major Swiss design schools are responsible for the early years of International Typographic Style. A graphic design technique based on grid-work that began in the 19th century became inspiration for modifying the foundational course at the
Basel School of Design in 1908. Shortly thereafter, in 1918 Ernst Keller became a professor at the
Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich and began developing a graphic design and typography course. He did not teach a specific style to his students, rather he taught a philosophy of style that dictated "the solution to the design problem should emerge from its content."
This idea of the solution to the design emerging from the problem itself was a reaction to previous artistic processes focused on "beauty for the sake of beauty" or "the creation of beauty as a purpose in and of itself". Keller's work uses simple geometric forms, vibrant colors and evocative imagery to further elucidate the meaning behind each design. Other early pioneers include Théo Ballmer and
Max Bill
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Early life and education
Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmith ...
.
The 1950s saw the distillation of International Typographic Style elements into sans-serif font families such as
Univers
Univers () is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957. Classified as a Grotesque (typeface classification), neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteen ...
. Univers paved the way for
Max Miedinger
Max Miedinger (24 December 1910 – 8 March 1980) was a Swiss typeface designer, best known for creating the ''Neue Haas Grotesk'' typeface in 1957, renamed Helvetica in 1960. Marketed as a symbol of cutting-edge Swiss technology, Helvetica achie ...
and collaborator Edouard Hoffman to design the typeface Neue Haas Grotesk, which would be later renamed
Helvetica
Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...
. The goal with Helvetica was to create a pure typeface that could be applied to longer texts and that was highly readable. The movement began to coalesce after a periodical publication began in 1959 titled
New Graphic Design, which was edited by several influential designers who played major roles in the development of International Typographic Style. The format of the journal represented many of the important elements of the style—visually demonstrating the content—and was published internationally, thus spreading the movement beyond Switzerland's borders. One of the editors,
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Josef Müller-Brockmann (9 May 1914 – 30 August 1996) was a Swiss graphic designer, author, and educator, he was a Principal at Muller-Brockmann & Co. design firm. He was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style. Müller-Brockmann is re ...
, "sought an absolute and universal form of graphic expression through objective and impersonal presentation, communicating to the audience without the interference of the designer's subjective feelings or propagandist techniques of persuasion." Many of Müller-Brockmann's feature large photographs as objective symbols meant to convey his ideas in particularly clear and powerful ways.
After World War II international trade began to increase and relations between countries grew steadily stronger. Typography and design were crucial to helping these relationships progress—clarity, objectivity, region-less glyphs, and symbols are essential to communication between international partners. International Typographic Style found its niche in this communicative climate and expanded further beyond Switzerland, to America.
One of the first American designers to integrate Swiss design with his own was
Rudolph de Harak Rudolph de Harak, also Rudy de Harak (April 10, 1924 – April 24, 2002), was an American graphic designer. De Harak was notable as a designer who covered a broad spectrum of applications with a distinctly modernist aesthetic. He was also influentia ...
. The influence of International Typographic Style on de Harak's own works can be seen in his many book jacket designs for McGraw-Hill publishers in the 1960s. Each jacket shows the book title and author, often aligned with a grid—flush left, ragged-right. One striking image covers most of the jacket, elucidating the theme of the particular book. International Typographic Style was embraced by corporations and institutions in America from the 1960s on, for almost two decades. One institution particularly devoted to the style was
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
.
Associated movements
During the 1900s other design based movements were formulating, influencing and influenced by the International Typographic movement. These movements emerged within the relationships between artistic fields including architecture, literature, graphic design, painting, sculpting etc.
De Stijl
''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body o ...
was a Dutch artistic movement that saw prominence in the period between 1917 and 1931. Referred to as neoplasticism, this artistic strategy sought to reflect a new Utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order. It was a form of pure abstraction through reduction to the essentials of form and colour, employing vertical and horizontal layouts using only black and white and primary colors. Proponents of this movement included painters like
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...
, Vilmos Huszar and Bart van der Leck as well as architects like
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect.
Early life
Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at ni ...
,
Robert van 't Hoff
Robert van 't Hoff (November 5, 1887 – April 25, 1979), born Robbert van 't Hoff, was a Dutch architect and furniture designer. His ''Villa Henny'', designed in 1914, was one of the earliest modernist houses and one of the first to be built o ...
and
J. J. P. Oud.
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
was a German-based movement that emphasized purity of geometry, absence of ornamentation and the motto 'form follows function'. This was a school of thought that combined craftsmaking with the fine arts and was founded by
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
. The goal was to work towards the essence of the form follows function relationship to facilitate a style that could be applied to all design problems; the International Style.
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
was an art/architectural philosophy that emerged from Russia in the 1920s. The style develops by assorted mechanical objects that are combined into abstract mobile structural forms. Hallmarks of the movement include geometric reduction, photo-montage and simplified palettes.
Suprematism
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
, which arose in 1913, is another Russian art movement similarly focused on the simplification and purity of geometric forms to speak to values of spirituality.
All of these movements including the International Typographic styles are defined by reductionist purity as a visually compelling strategy of conveying messages through geometric and color based hierarchies.
Theory
The Bauhaus mantra of 'form follows function' applies to design in the spirit of the International Typographic movement. The movement was structured by focusing on detail, precision, craft skill, systems of education and approach, technical training, high standards of print, and the innovative application of lettering.
The theory revolves around critically approaching the development of a system specific to the design problem presented.
For example, a father of the style, Ernst Keller, argued that a design solution should always be respectful of its content.
A good comparison is the structure that defines a math problem. One only uses specific equations for specific types of problems. One similarly only can work through these equations in specific ways. With the International Typographic and other related philosophies, a design context is critical to deriving a response.
Characteristics of style
Each design done with International Typographic Style in mind begins with a mathematical grid, because a grid is the "most legible and harmonious means for structuring information."
Text is then applied, most often aligned flush left, ragged right. Fonts chosen for the text are sans serif, a type style believed to "
xpress Xpress may refer to:
*Xpress (TV series), an award-winning multi cultural entertainment series
*Xpress, a regional passenger bus service provided by the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority in metropolitan Atlanta
* X*Press X*Change, an obsol ...
the spirit of a more progressive age" by early designers in the movement.
Objective photography is another design element meant to present information clearly, and without any of the persuading influences of propaganda or commercial advertising. Such a strong focus on order and clarity is drawn from early pioneers of the movement believing that design is a "socially useful and important activity ... the designers define their roles not as artists but as objective conduits for spreading important information between components of society."
See also
*
International style (architecture)
*
Helvetica
Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...
*
Max Bill
Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.
Early life and education
Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmith ...
*
Adrian Frutiger
Adrian Johann Frutiger ( ; 24 May 1928 – 10 September 2015) was a Swiss typeface designer who influenced the direction of type design in the second half of the 20th century. His career spanned the hot metal, phototypesetting and digital t ...
*
Armin Hofmann
Armin Hofmann ( HonRDI) (29 June 1920 – 18 December 2020) was a Swiss graphic designer.
He began his career in 1947 as a teacher at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel School of Art and Crafts at the age of twenty-six. Hofmann followed Emil Ru ...
*
Dorothea Hofmann
Dorothea (née Schmid) Hofmann (born 9 October 1929), also known as Dorli is a Swiss graphic designer, artist, educator and the author of ''Die Geburt eines Stils'' (The Birth of a Style). She is one of the first students who passed the Basel edu ...
*
Richard Paul Lohse
Richard Paul Lohse (September 13, 1902 – September 16, 1988) was a Swiss painter and graphic artist and one of the main representatives of the concrete and constructive art movements.
Lohse was born in Zürich in 1902. His wish to study in Pa ...
*
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Josef Müller-Brockmann (9 May 1914 – 30 August 1996) was a Swiss graphic designer, author, and educator, he was a Principal at Muller-Brockmann & Co. design firm. He was a pioneer of the International Typographic Style. Müller-Brockmann is re ...
*
Paul Rand
Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum; August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American art director and graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ...
*
Emil Ruder
Emil Ruder (20 March 1914 – 13 March 1970) was a Swiss typographer and graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann joined the faculty of the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design).
He is distinguishable in the field of typography ...
*
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold (born Johannes Tzschichhold, also known as Iwan Tschichold, or Ivan Tschichold; 2 April 1902 – 11 August 1974) was a German calligrapher, typographer and book designer. He played a significant role in the development of gra ...
References
Further reading
*Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. .
*Hollis, Richard. ''Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965.'' Yale University Press: 2006. .
*Müller-Brockmann, Josef. ''Grid Systems in Graphic Design.'' Niggli: 1996. .
*Ruder, Emil. ''Typography.'' Hastings House: 1981. .
External links
International Style / Swiss Style Color PaletteSwiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited
{{Westernart
Art movements
Swiss art
Graphic design
Communication design
Modern art
1920s in art
1950s in art