Swiss Style

swiss swiss style style

Design Matters Magazine *

“we can talk about making a difference, we can make a difference, or we can do both”

issue#8

Read how the infamous Rosmarie Tissi defines design and maintains her clean and honest approach.

In depth historical profile on Swiss Style design and it’s lasting influence on the world at large.

August 2017 RRP $5.95 Radiotopia LTD Brisbane, AUS.

swiss style The lively, challenging artistic movements of De Stijl, Bauhaus and Constructivism had broad and sweeping influence on designers all over the world.

Swiss Style is also know as the International Style or the International Typographic Style.

Swiss Style emerged in the 1920s and was further developed with influences from the movements mentioned above in the 1950s.

Based on mathematical grids Swiss Style is a continuation of artists and designers seeking to produce clean, readable, and objective design. Some of the first and best examples of using typography as a primary design element are from this period. Typefaces Helvetica, Akzidenz-Grotesk, and Univers featured heavily and were often paired with photography rather than illustration.

Another characteristic of Swiss Style is the asymmetrical layouts, pushing the boundaries of how a grid could be used. Josef MüllerBrockmann who is still today the most well known and easily recognised Swiss Style designer famously said,

“The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee... One must learn how to use the grid;

it is an art that requires

practice.”

the International

MĂźller-Brockmann created minimalistic designs which with the careful use of a gridded system, the meaningful use of colour, and the extreme consideration of the typography, seemed to drip with meaning.

He designed, wrote, theorised, and taught grid-based design, all the time working towards spreading a universal language of graphic expression.

Design Matters Magazine *

With the specific goal of communication above all else the International Swiss Style saw designers ditch serif typography, create new techniques of combining photography into their compositions, and experiment heavily with the size, weight, placement, and overall form of each letter on a page.

The most relatable element of this movement and style is the colour and the cleverness of it all. Timelessness rings true with the amazing fact that such life and meaning can be injected using so few elements.

Designers and typographers today should all aspire to use type and colour half as effectively.

Swiss Style

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