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Josef M端ller-Brockmann
Discovering a new style: The Grid System Photography Typography Swiss Style
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The function and use of the grid system is intended to provide the designer opertaing in two dimension with a pratical working instrument which will enable him to handle visual problems.
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A Firm Turn Toward the Objective: Josef Müller-Brockmann 1948-1981 Joanne Meister, 2013
Josef Müller-Brockmann 1914-1996
Rapperswil, Switzerland
In the beginning of Josef Müller -Brockmann’s career, he focused a lot on illustration. Dissatisfied with his illustrative works at the age of thirty-five, Müller-Brockman stripped the “decorative elements” of his design. He saw illustration as a narrow narration of a specific time and place. Josef Müller-Brockmann wanted to get rid off these “decorative elements” into a create style of “purity” and timeless context- a universal style. The illustrative works in the beginning of Müller-Brockmann’s career shifts to an objective design style. Rational, and functional designs are the ideas Josef Müller-Brockmann believe. His desire to change his illustrative works towards a subjective style was influenced by modernist
ideas. Josef Müller-Brockmann, along with other designers, developed a modular grid to guide the placement of text and images within a layout by using only columns and margins. This technique is also known as the grid system. In which Müller-Brockmann wrote a constructive book about called Grid System in Graphic Design: A visual communication manual for graphic designers, typographers, and three-dimensional designers. Many artists during the mid-twentieth used the flexible grid as an armature for their practice including Josef Müller-Brockmann himself.
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Josef Müller-Brockmann Kerry William Purcell, 2006
The Grid
Discovering a new system
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In the late forties the grid system became the foundation for all of Josef Müller-Brockmann designs for the remainder of his career as his interest in illustrations decline. The use of sans serif typography, asymmetric composition, color, and mathematical methods, such as geometry, photography and illustrations became the principles for a movement called the Swiss Style or International style. This grid system was an opportunity for Josef Müller-Brockmann to create order
and balance into his designs. In the early fifties his works became rational and constructive. The images Müller-Brockmann produced in the mid fifties and sixties show a distinct arrangement between the pictorial elements, and type compare to his pervious works. The gird system helped Josef Müller-Brockmann proportion his composition and stress his use of color, geometric shapes and type.
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Musica Viva, Poster Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, 1958
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Seeking to avoid the “decorative elements” in favor of a greater objectivity, Muller-Brockmann sought to redirect his works from a parochial and provincial context to a radically constructivist and universal langauge.
In Josef Müller-Brockmann efforts to create a structural aesthetic in his work, each design had to be thought through. The quality of the materials appeared as MüllerBrockmann’s sensitivity of his layout. To render order from his pervious works, Müller-Brockmann had set rules and guidelines for each of his individual design. First, he narrowed his selection of typefaces to use sans serifs such as Grotesque, and Helvetica. The quality of typeface, according to Josef Müller-
Brockmann, must have a purpose to be functional, and create an aesthetic or an idea. The typeface should generate balance and contrast within the composition. Second, had to be conscious and aware of the treatment of type in each composition. The leading and spacing between the letters or words must be dealt with care. To have the right balance of spacing between words and letters meant the viewer have an easier time reading the message.
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Music Viva, Poster Tonhalle-Geseschaft Zürich 1968
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Music Vivia, Poster Tonhalle-Geseschaft Zürich, 1958
In works with heavy bodies of text, Josef Müller-Brockmann broke the type into sections to build space in the posters. Instead of forming all the texts into a densely packed space like before, he divided them into four columns. Wanting to create these openings in between the columns of type, he used the grid to have the same width of columns along with the same space in between them. The openings in these posters showed us Müller-Brockmann’s thought process of integrating dense context with different size and weight of type.
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Grid System in Graphic Design, Book Verlag Niggli, 1981
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Swiss Style
Stepping away from the past The flexibility of the grid’s structure also enables Josef Müller-Brockmann to control the arrangement of photography into his design. To Müller-Brockmann photography was a medium that had characteristics and functions, which was seen in Object Photography during the mid-twenties.The Object Photography concepts were to convey important or certain information, and to grab the viewers’ eyes with just a single picture. Photography was bold yet simple, something he was looking for. These elements set a vision for Müller-Brockmann to use photography over illustration in his designed works. Also in his bodies of works, the photographed images were easier
to arrange and place using the grid system then illustrative works. The photographs in his works conformed to his style gracefully, and became an equal element to his design. Although Josef Müller-Brockmann saw photography as a better element than illustration, he didn’t used photography in all his works. Depending on the client he was working for, such as Tonhalle-Geseschaft Zürich, Müller-Brockmann used geometric shapes as images. Produced designs that incorporate mathematical methods or inspired by sound, the grid refined Josef Müller-Brockmann’s layout as well as his values in graphic design. Using both pictorial images and type, the grid helped Müller-
Brockmann create a constant style in each of his template. Understanding and knowing the grid system, Josef Müller-Brockmann started to piece together the characteristics of the grid and set fundamental principles -which is seen in his book Grid System in Graphic Design. The grid system organized the visual information into a constructive style that Josef Müller-Brockmann was searching for.
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Josef M端ller-Brockmann belived in rational, functional design. To achieve that, he used geometry, photography, and abstraction. Graphic Icons: Visionaries who shaped Modern Graphic Design John Clifford, 2014
Der Film, Poster Kunstgewerbemuseum Z端rich, 1960
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Josef Müller-Brockmann
Frühjahrskonzert der TonhalleGesellschaft (5th Spring concert of the Acoustic Society), Poster Zürich, 1955
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International Juni Festwochen, Poster Stadttheater Zürich, 1963
Born: May 9, 1914 Rapperswil, Switzerland Death: August 30,1996 Zürich, Switzerland Education: University of Zürich
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Musica Viva, Poster Tonhalle-Geseschaft Z端rich, 1959
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Z端rich Tonhalle Concert, Poster Tonhalle Z端rich, 1955
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Beethoven/ Brahms Strauss, Poster Tonhalle-Geseschaft Z端rich, 1955
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Josef M端ller-Brockmann Discovering a System
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Bibliography Purcell, Kerry William, and Josef Brockmann. Josef M端ller-Brockmann. New York: Phaidon, 2006. Print. Brockmann, Josef. Grid Systems in Graphic Design: A Visual Communication Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers, and Three Dimensional Designers = Raster Systeme F端r Die Visuelle Gestaltung : Ein Handbuch F端r Grafiker, Typografen, Und Ausstellungsgestalter. Niederteufen: Verlag Arthur Niggli ;, 1981. Print.
Designed and written by Miriam Amaro-Ochoa Composed in Helvetica Regular Printed in the U.S: TOSHIBA ColorMFP-X4 USA Copry right 息 2015 Miriam Amaro, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art
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Josef M端ller-Brockmann
Discovering a new style: The Grid System Photography Typography Swiss Style
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Bibliography
Purcell, Kerry William, and Josef Brockmann. Josef M端ller-Brockmann. New York: Phaidon, 2006. Print. Brockmann, Josef. Grid Systems in Graphic Design: A Visual Communication Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers, and Three Dimensional Designers = Raster Systeme F端r Die Visuelle Gestaltung : Ein Handbuch F端r Grafiker, Typografen, Und Ausstellungsgestalter. Niederteufen: Verlag Arthur Niggli ;, 1981. Print.
Designed and written by Miriam Amaro-Ochoa Composed in Helvetica Regular Printed in the U.S: TOSHIBA ColorMFP-X4 USA Copry right 息 2015 Miriam Amaro, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art