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Max Huber was born in Switzerland in 1919. He studied design under Alfred Willimann at the Zurich School of Arts & Crafts and in 1940 moved to Milan and worked at Studio Boggeri. During the war in 1942 he was forced to return to Switzerland, While there he became a member of the Alliance Association of Modern Swiss Artists. In 1945 he moved back to Milan. After the war, Huber believed that design had the ability to restore human values. This humanistic conception of design had a great impact across Europe in the 1950s. Huber had always worked as a freelance designer and collaborated directly with each client. He tried to find a balance between the needs of his clients and his own need to experiment and would not hesitate to turn a client away if they made a ridiculous request. He never used his images in a strict sense and often mixed flat photographic 2
and typographic elements with elements of colour to communicate a certain feeling of dynamism and speed. He used recognisable elements in his design, without having them tell a story. His work focused on photographic experiments and clear type combined with the use of bold shapes and primary colors. His strict grids were easily identifiable. Huber favoured clarity, rhythm and synthesis. He used succinct texts, composed from different hierarchical groups. From 1950 to 1954 Huber worked for the department store La Rinascente, where Huber’s ideas gave him a point of difference on the Italian scene.
Milan became the Italian hub for international culture, and Huber, a leading player, was invited to international design-conventions. These trips brought him into contact with other major designers, mainly American and Japanese. One of the Japanese designers was Takeshi Kono, Huber actually fell in love with his daughter
the relationship between signs and colours. Huber was influenced by many, including his puritan, constructivist Swiss background. His constant use of flat figures in his design links to his original sources: the early avant-gardes represented by MoholyNagy, Piet Zwart and Max Bill. Huber applied the utopian aesthetics
Aoi and they were married. Between 1964 and 1965 he spent long periods in Japan. One of the jobs he approached with great enthusiasm was the design of record covers, posters and publications for jazz events. He very much enjoyed jazz-music and linked it to his own design by bringing the rhythm into his visuals. The music was represented through
of the avant-garde to a corporate and commercial environment throughout his life. Despite the lack of an apparent Futurist legacy, Huber did find inspiration in their ideas, as shown in several of his posterdesigns for sports-events.
recongnised to this day. Some of Huber’s logodesigns are still in use today, not only the logo of the La Rinascente department store, designed in 1950, but also the Coin clothing store in 1955 and the Essalunga Logo in 1958
Huber’s posters for the Monza races, jazz record covers, and book covers continue to be
Huber continued to work up until he dies in Switzerland in 1992. 3
“He was a splendid mix; he had irrepressible natural talent and a faultless drawing hand; he possessed the lively candour of the eternal child; he was a true product of the Swiss School; he loved innovatory research; he boasted a lively curiosity, being quick to latch on - not without irony - to the most unpredictable ideas, and he worked with the serious precision of the first-rate professional.” - Giampiero Bosoni
References Archivio Grafica Italiana � Max Huber. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www. archiviograficaitaliana.com/designers/4/maxhuber Hats off to design: Max Huber for Borsalino | Italian Ways. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.italianways.com/hats-off-to-design-max-huber-for-borsalino/ Retrieved from http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Max-Huber/
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Max Huber – Index Grafik. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://indexgrafik.fr/max-huber/