International Typographic Style

The International
Typographic Style
Graphic Design History

The design movement known as Swiss Design,
or the Interna6onal Typographic Style,
emerged from Switzerland and Germany
during the 1950s
Used throughout the world,
it was a major force for over two decades,
and its influence con6nues today.

Visual Characteris6cs of the Interna6onal Typographic Style
• Unity of design achieved by asymmetrical organiza6on of the design
elements on a mathema6cally constructed grid (grid considered to be the
most harmonious means for structuring informa3on)
• Use of photography and copy that present visual and verbal informa6on
in a clear and factual manner, free from exaggerated claims of
propaganda and commercial adver3sing
• Use of sans‐serif typography set in a flush‐leK and ragged right margin
configura6on. The ini3ators of this movement believed that sans‐serif
typography expressed the spirit of a more progressive age.

Ernst Keller
Poster for the Rietberg Museum
1955

Ernst Keller
Poster for Rietberg Museum
1955
• More than any other individual, the quality
and discipline found in the Swiss design
movement can be traced to Ernst Keller
(1891 – 1968)
• Keller was an influen6al teacher at the Zurich
School of Applied Art and designer of
leZering, trademarks, and posters
• Rather than using one single style, Keller
argued that the solu6on to a design problem
should emerge from its content
• His poster for the Rietberg Museum
demonstrates his interest in symbolic imagery,
simplified geometric forms, expressive edges
and leZering, and vibrant contras6ng color

Theo Ballmer
Poster for a traveling exhibi6on
of industrial standards
1928

Theo Ballmer
Poster for a traveling
exhibi6on
1928
• The roots of the Interna6onal
Typographic Style can be traced to the
School of Design in Basel
• The School of Design in Basel taught
students fundamental geometric
exercises involving the cube and the line.
This founda3on was used from the late
nineteenth century into the 1950s.
• In Ballmer’s “norm” poster, the grid is
used to construct harmony and is openly
displayed
• Use of geometric leZerforms
• Bold use of black, white, and red

Anthony Froshaug
Cover for the Quarterly Bulle6n
of the Hochschule für Gestaltung
1958

Anthony Froshaug
Cover for the Quarterly Bulle6n
of the Hochschule für Gestaltung
1958
• English typographer, Anthony Froshaug
(1918 – 84) was a professor of graphic
design at the Ulm Ins3tute of Design in
Germany
• Ulm Ins6tute focused on research and
scien6fic approaches to address design
problems of the era
• Froshaug designed the Ulm journal’s
first five issues
• Froshaug used a four column grid
system and only two sizes of type – this
format became widely influen3al

Max Huber
Annual Report Cover
1951

Max Huber
Annual Report Cover
1951
• Swiss designer Max Huber (1919 – 92)
brought complexity, vitality, and
intricacy to his work
• Studied at the Bauhaus and Zurich
School of Arts and CraKs, moved to
Milan, Italy, and then back to
Switzerland
• Bright pure hues combined with
photographs in intense, complex visual
composi6on
• Took advantage of the transparency of
prin6ng inks by layering shapes,
typography, and images to create a
complex web of graphic informa3on

Max Huber
Poster for Bosalino hats
1949

Max Huber
Poster for Borsalino hats
1949
• Poster focuses on the product, the type of
hat that made Borsalino famous
• Borsalino hats are manufactured in Italy
where Huber once lived
• Huber combines photography and bold
graphics
• The design devices below the hat help to
unify the posters when hung in rows
together

Anton Stankowski
Trademark for Standard
Elektrik Lorenz AG
1953

Anton Stankowski
Trademark for Standard
Elektrik Lorenz AG
1953
• German‐born designer Anton Stankowski
(1906 – 98) applied his intellectual insight
of science and engineering into his work
• AZer World War II, he created visual
forms to communicate invisible processes
and physical forces of science
• Stankowski did ini6al research on his
subject before designing and he tackled a
variety of complex concepts, including
electromagne6c energy and the internal
workings of a computer
• Dynamic equilibrium is achieved in this
trademark by an asymmetrical
construc6on of an implied square,
signifying communica6ons, transmission
and recep6on

Anton Stankowski
Calendar cover for
Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG
1957

Anton Stankowski
Calendar cover for
Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG
1957
• A radial configura6on symbolizes
transmission and radia6on using the
client’s radio and telephone products

Bruno Pläffli from Atelier Fru3ger
Univers typeface
(composi3on with leber u)
1960

Bruno Pläffli from Atelier Fru3ger
Univers typeface
(composi3on with leber u)
1954
• The emerging Interna3onal
Typographic style was exemplified by
several new sans‐serif typefaces
designed in the 1950s
• The geometric sans‐serif fonts of the
1920s were rejected in favor of more
refined designs inspired by
nineteenth‐century Akzidenz
Grotesk fonts
• In 1954, a young Swiss designer
working in Paris, Adrian Fru6ger (b.
1928) completed a family of twenty‐one
sans‐serif fonts known as
Univers
• The texture and tone of a Univers
text seeng is more uniform that
that of most earlier typefaces

Edouard Hoffman and
Max Miedinger
Helve6ca typeface
1961

Edouard Hoffman and
Max Miedinger
Helve6ca typeface
1961
• In the mid‐1950s, Edouard Hoffman of the HAAS
type foundry in Switzerland decided to refine
and upgrade the Akzidenz Grotesk fonts from
the 19th Century.
• He collaborated with Max Medinger and created
a sans‐serif typeface with an even larger x‐height
than that of Univers (the height from the base
line to the median line, usually the height of the
leZer x).
• The font was first called Neue Haas Grotesk.
When the design was produced in Germany, the
name was changed to Helve6ca, the tradi6onal
La6n name for Switzerland.
• Well‐defined forms and excellent rhythm of
posi6ve and nega6ve shapes, the font is used
widely and interna6onally
• Neue Helve6ca was added in 1983 with
extended, condensed, and italic versions

Hermann Zapf
Pala6no typeface
1950

Hermann Zapf
Pala6no typeface
1950
• Pala6no derives from the tradi6ons of
calligraphy and Renaissance typography
• German typeface designer, Hermann
Zapf (b. 1918) believed that typeface
design is “one of the most visible visual
expressions of an age”
• Pala6no (released in 1950) is a roman
style with broad leZers, strong serifs,
and elegant propor6ons
• While Zapf’s typefaces are based on a
deep understanding of the past, they are
original inven6ons designed with a full
understanding of 20th Century
technologies

Armin Hofmann
Logotype for the
Basel Civic Theater
1954

Armin Hofmann
Logotype for the
Basel Civic Theater
1954
• Swiss designer Armin Hofmann (b. 1920),
applies deep aesthe6c values and an
understanding of form to his teaching
and design work
• He evolved a design philosophy based on
the elemental graphic‐form language of
point, line, and plane
• Hofmann seeks to create a dynamic
harmony in his work where all parts of his
designs are unified
• This logotype is hand‐leZered with
controlled spa6al intervals between
leZerforms

Armin Hofmann
Poster for the Besel theater
produc6on of Giselle
1959

Armin Hofmann
Poster for the Basel theater
produc6on of Giselle
1959
• Swiss Style combining photography
and type aligned on the leK
• An organic, kine3c, and soZ
photographic image contrasts with
the geometric, sta6c, and hard‐edged
shapes of the typography
• Giselle is a roman6c ballet based on
a poem about a girl who dies of a
broken‐heart. First performed in
Paris in 1841, it became widely
popular.

Armin Hofmann
Poster for Herman Miller
furniture
1962

Armin Hofmann
Poster for Herman Miller
furniture
1962
• Shapes and silhoueZes of Herman
Miller Chairs
• Bold black, white, and red graphic
composi3on
• Movement is anchored by the red
Herman Miller logo at the top

Armin Hofmann
Poster for William Tell
1963

Armin Hofmann
Poster for William Tell
1963
• The large sans‐serif leZers that spell out
the word Tell implies an arrow aimed at
the large apple in the background
• Poster is to adver6se the performance of
William Tell
• William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland.
According to the legend, Tell is an expert
marksman with his bow and arrows and
assassinated a dictator from Habsburg,
Austria. The story was recorded in a late
15th Century chronicle and is set in the
early 14th Century.

Josef Müller‐Brockmann
Weniger Lärm (Less Noise)
public awareness poster
1960

Weniger Lärm (Less Noise)
public awareness poster
1960
• Josef Müller‐Brockman (1914 – 96) was a
leading theorist and prac66oner of the
Interna6onal Typographic Style
• Müller‐Brockman sought an absolute and
universal form of graphic expression by
communica3ng to the audience without
the interference of the designer’s
subjec3ve feelings
• Camera angle and scale of the photo,
along with the dynamic red type create
impact

Der Film exhibi6on poster
1960

Der Film exhibi6on poster
1960
• Müller‐Brockmann’s der Film poster
demonstrates his use of universal design
harmony achieved by mathema6cal
spa6al division.
• The propor6ons are close to the three‐to‐
five ra6o of the golden mean,
considered the most beau3fully
propor3oned rectangle by the ancient
Greeks.
• The overlapping Film in from of der is a
typographic equivalent to the cinema6c
techniques of overlapping images and
dissolving from one image to another.
• The graphic power of this poster’s
simplicity successfully combines effec6ve
communica6on, expression of the
content, and visual harmony.

The International Typographic Style
in America

The Swiss movement had a major impact on postwar American
design. Its influence was first felt in the late 1940s and 50s, and
became especially evident during the 1960s and 70s.

Rudolph de Harak
Album cover
1961

Rudolph de Harak
Album cover for
Sounds from the Alps
1961
• Rudolph de Harak (1924 ‐2002) embraced
European modernism. He began his
career in Los Angeles in 1946, and then
moved to New York to form his own
design studio in 1952.
• de Harak appreciated the communica6ve
clarity and visual order in Swiss design
• He applied grid structures and
assymmetry in his design work.
• He also used Akzidenz Grotesk typeface
before it was officially available in the
US.
• He created a series of album covers for
Westminster Records which evoke
conceptual images of the music’s
structure.

Jacqueline C. Casey
Poster for MIT open house
1974

Jacqueline C. Casey
Body Language:
Figura6ve Aspects of Recent Art
exhibi6on poster
1981

Jacqueline C. Casey
Poster for MIT open house
1974
• In the 1950s, the MassachuseZs
Ins6tute of Technology (MIT)
established a graphic design program
enabling all members of the university
community to benefit from free,
professional design assistance on their
publica6ons and publicity materials
• MIT based its graphic design program on
a commitment to the grid and sans‐serif
typography
• Jacqueline S. Casey (1927 – 91) was the
director of the Design Services Office
which produced posters and
publica6ons on the university campus
• Many of their design solu6ons are
purely typographic. The leZerforms are
used as illustra6ons.

International Typographic Style

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