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Josef
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The function and use of the grid system is intended to provide the designer operating in two dimension with a practical 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 MüllerBrockmann’s career, he focused a lot on illustration. Dissatisfied with his illustrative works at the age of Thirty-five, Müller-Brockmann 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 of these “decorative elements” into a creating style of “purity” and timeless context, a universal style. The illustrative works in the beginning of MüllerBrockmann’s career shifts to an objective design style. Rational, and functional designs are the ideas Josef Müller-Brockmann believed. 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 declined. 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 in 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 previous 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, Müller-Brockmann sought to redirect his works from a parochial and provincial context to a radically constructionist and universal language.
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 previous works, Müller-Brockmann had set rules and guidelines for each of his individual design. First, he narrowed his selection of typefaces to the 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 would 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 concepts of Object Photography 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 design works.
In his body of works, the photographed images were easier to arrange and place using the grid system instead of illustrative works. The photographs in his work 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 use 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. In 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 templates. 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 the constructive style that Josef Müller-Brockmann was searching for.
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Josef M端ller-Brockmann believed 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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Author: The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems, Braun Publish, 1961 History of the Poster, Phaidon Press, 1971 The History of Visual Communication, Braun Publish, 1971 The Grid System in Graphic Design, Braun Publish, 1981
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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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Beethoven, Poster Tonhalle-Geseschaft Zürich, 1955
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Purcell, Kerry William, and Josef Brockmann. Josef Müller-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 Für Die Visuelle Gestaltung : Ein Handbuch Für Grafiker, Typografen, Und Ausstellungsgestalter. Niederteufen: Verlag Arthur Niggli ;, 1981. Print.
Designed and written by Miriam Amaro-Ochoa Composed in Helvetica Regular, Bold and Light Printed in the U.S.: TOSHIBA ColorMFP-X4 USA Copryright © 2015 Miriam Amaro, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art