8 Best Books on Swiss Graphic Design
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1. Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann
This illustrated essay traces the history of one of the leading exponents of Swiss Graphic Design in the 1950s and 1960s. Josef Müller-Brockmann’s posters have become world famous for their ability to convey information with great visual tension, a sense of drama, and an extreme economy of means. He created a body of work in which timeless principles of visual communication are inscribed. In addition to the posters, the image part presents examples of logotypes, appearances, and exhibitions as well as numerous lesser-known
works in chronological order.
2. Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style by Richard Hollis
Swiss graphic design and „the Swiss Style” are crucial elements in the history of modernism. During the 1920s and 30s, skills traditionally associated with Swiss industry, particularly pharmaceuticals and mechanical engineering, were matched by those of the country's graphic designers, who produced their advertising and technical literature. These pioneering graphic artists saw design as part of industrial production and searched for anonymous, objective visual communication. They chose photographic images rather than illustration, and typefaces that were industrial-looking rather than those designed for books.
3. 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design by Christian Brandle, Karin Gimmi, Barbara Junod, Bettina Richter and Museum of Design Zurich
100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design takes a fresh look at Swiss typography and photo-graphics, posters, corporate image design, book design, journalism and typefaces over the past hundred years. With illuminating essays by prominent experts in the field and captivating illustrations, this book, designed by the Zurich studio NORM, presents the diversity of contemporary visual design while also tracing the fine lines of tradition that connect the work of different periods. The changes in generations and paradigms as manifested in their different visual languages and convictions are organized along a timeline as well as by theme. The various fields of endeavor and media are described, along with how they relate to advertising, art, and politics. Graphic design from Switzerland reflects both itnernational trends and local concerns. High conceptual and formal quality, irony and wit are its constant companions. A new, comprehensive reference work on Swiss design.
4. Grid systems in graphic design by Josef Müller-Brockmann
A grid system is a rigid framework that is supposed to help graphic designers in the meaningful, logical and consistent organization of information on a page. It is an established tool that is used by print and web designers to create well-structured, balanced designs. Rudimentary versions of grid systems existed since the medieval times, but a group of Swiss graphic designers, mostly inspired in ideas from typographical literature started building a more rigid and coherent system for page layout. The core of these ideas were first presented by Müller-Brockmann who helped to spread the knowledge about the grids thorough the world. This volume provides guidelines and rules for the function and use for grid systems from 8 to 32 grid fields which can be used for the most varied of projects, the three-dimensional grid being treated as well. Exact directions for using all of the grid systems possibe presented are given to the user, showing examples of working correctly on a conceptual level.
5. Typographie: A Manual of Design by Emil Ruder
This book is the legacy of Emil Ruder, one of the originator of Swiss Style, famous throughout the world for the use of asymmetric layouts, use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces and flush left, ragged right text. His holistic approach is still recognized as fundamental for graphic designers and typographers all over the world. The voume is a comprehensive masterpiece seen in its overall structure: in the themes presented, in the comparison of similarities and contrasts, in the richness of the illustrations and the harmoniously inserted types. Behind the purely pedagogic examples of exact proportions, a rich, philosophical thinking shines through. Today, fifty years after this book was first published, it is still widely used and referenced.
6. 30 Years of Swiss Typographic Discourse in the Typografische Monatsblätter by Louise Paradis
The Typographische Monatsblätter is one of the most important journals to successfully disseminate the phenomenon of “Swiss typography” to an international audience. With more than 70 years in existence, the journal witnessed significant moments in the history of typography and graphic design. 30 Years of Swiss Typographic Discourse in the Typografische Monatsblatter examines the years 1960–90, that correspond to a period of transition in which many factors such as technology, socio-political contexts and aesthetic ideologies profoundly affected and transformed the fields of typography and graphic design. The book includes a large number of works from well-known and lesser-known designers such as Emil Ruder, Helmut Schmid, Wolfgang Weingart, Hans-Rudolf Lutz, Jost Hochuli and many others.
7. 100 Years of Swiss Design by Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Christian Brandle, Renate Menzi and Arthur Ruegg
100 Years of Swiss Design offers a new perspective of Switzerland’s achievements in furniture and product design. The book presents the essential historical designs in chronological sequence, from the regional roots of the early days around 1900 to the globalized network of today. Thirty essays by known experts shed light on themes typical of their times in word and image. Besides the design process, manufacturing techniques, distribution, and reception, the changing roles of the designer―from mediator between form and function, entrepreneur, social worker, to branding architect―are examined. Featuring one hundred key works from the Designsammlung, the world’s largest collection of Swiss design, this reference work is the first to present and discuss a comprehensive show of Swiss designers’ achievements, from the anonymous to the famous.
8. The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems by Josef Müller-Brockmann
Müller-Brockmann’s book aimed to solve the graphic designer’s problem of finding the appropriate contemporary form, became a standard work that still serves as an historic practical guide well beyond the boundaries of Switzerland. This edition is an unabbreviated reconstruction of the original edition of 1961, as a hardcover with jacket. It includes the additions made by Josef Müller-Brockmann himself for the paperback edition of 1983. In the first part, the path from illustrative to functional graphic design is traced, as well as the meaning of design elements, their use and effect in every area of advertising: business printed matter, advertisements, brochures, books, posters, and exhibitions. The middle section of the book contains fundamental thoughts concerning the work of the graphic designer. The chapter Science and Visual Communication covers the area of semiotics and communications research. In the last part, the systematic education of the graphic designer is presented by means of a comprehensive documentation. Thus, the book offers graphic designers a valuable survey of the fundamental tasks of design.
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