DESIGN Hunt
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1950s
wiss tyle
Breaking Traditions
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he Swiss Style also known as the International Typographic Style was a graphic movement that originated in Switzerland, 1950s and was part of the modernist movement.
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The style was heavily influenced by post WWII as International trade began to increase and relations between countries grew significantly. The pioneers of the movement were greatly influenced by graphic designer, Josef Muller-Brockman and Armin Hoffman where they had influenced the design world due to their use of cleanliness, minimalism, readability and legibility styles.
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The visual characteristic of the style includes it’s heavily use of asymmetrical layouts and grid system that enhances a visual hierarchy. Brockman first presented the system to create a well-structure, balance designs as well as a clear, readability and legibility layout such as the use of flush-left, ragged right text alignment. According to P.B. Meggs graphic design book — History of Graphic Design
“The grids are considered to be the most legible and harmonious means for structuring information. It creates a sense of hierarchy, flexibility, consistency and easy to follow.” The style also showed the use of photographs instead of illustration due to following the modernist ideas in which photography was a much better tool to portray reality than illustrations. For example, the Neue Grafik magazine, which was a famous Swiss graphic design publication heavily emphasises on using photography.
Josef Muller-Brockmann’s poster
Heavily use of Sans-Serif typeface could also be seen throughout the era as it allows readers to focus more on the content than the decorative ornaments. The use of font size and contrasting colours to create a sense of hierarchy was an efficient way to guide the reader’s eyes through the page. Examples of typefaces include AkzidenzGrotesk, Univers and Helvetica. The movement were believed to have served as the forerunner for web designers due to its ability to produce impacting, simple designs yet still delivering the messages clearly and precise. For example, its strong attention in creating a uniform design and its use of geometric shapes, experimenting with combinations of polygonal shapes to form abstract geometrical designs as well as colours and text manipulations to produce a clear message in a remarkable way.
Armin Hofmann’s poster
Innovators combined with all these design elements were the driving force of the Swiss Style that has influenced not only in the 20th century but also today.
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