100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design

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Press Release February 2012
New exhibition at the
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Museum of Design Zurich
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Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
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Ausstellungsstrasse 60, CH-8005 Zürich
Telefon +41 (0)43 446 67 67
Fax +41 (0)43 446 45 67
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www.museum-gestaltung.ch
[email protected]
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Zürcher Hochschule der Künste
Zürcher Fachhochschule
100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design
Exhibition:
10 February to 3 June 2012, Halle
Media conference:
Thursday, 9 February 2012, 10 am
Opening:
Thursday, 9 February 2012, 7 pm
Curator:
Karin Gimmi, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Barbara Junod, Graphics Collection, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Scenography:
Matthias Gnehm
Up to the present day Swiss graphic design has always been regarded as a pioneering and
high-quality product. With a fresh and comprehensive exhibition the Museum für
Gestaltung Zürich now presents one hundred years of visual communication.
Graphic design is ubiquitous. Who is not familiar with the signet of the SBB, the nine glowing colored dots on the ABM plastic bags, or the legendary advertising campaign for Toni yoghurt? The
graphic symbols of everyday life inscribe themselves in the collective memory and exert a lasting
impact on visual culture. “100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design” showcases the diversity of contemporary visual culture as well as revealing the fine lines of tradition that extend between works
from different epochs. The show reveals that, while it is impossible to identify a single individual
style in Swiss graphic design, a certain common approach is certainly to be found. The striking
quality of the works, the way in which they are securely rooted in handcraft, as well as precision
and reduction to essentials are the characteristics of this approach. Graphic works from Switzerland reflect international tendencies as well as local characteristics. They are accompanied by
irony and wit.
Graphic design meets art, photography and music
This exhibition is a colorful cross-section through one hundred years of visual everyday culture.
The chronological link is formed by a continuous frieze made up of 100 posters from the period
between 1912 and 2012. The poster has been able to retain its relevance as a medium over this
entire period, so that the range extends from classic masters of poster art, such as Otto Baumberger, to designers from the younger generation. The show reveals that, despite changes in
needs, aspirations and techniques over the course of time, graphic design always circles around
similar themes: the field of tension between art and graphic design is manifested, for example, in
the works of Max Bill, the dialogue between graphic design and photography is illustrated by Herbert Matter’s tourism advertising, and the world of signs and symbols in the Migros logo. Advertising is represented by classics from the Zurich advertising agency GGK, the permanent relation-
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ship between music and graphic culture by examples from the club scene or by Max Huber’s legendary Sirenella poster. “100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design” makes reference both to changes in
thought patterns as well as constants in the approach of the designers or in the use of design
tools. Here the spotlight is turned, for example, on Swissair and its visual presence, the signage in
the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris or the production of the Rote Fabrik.
The venue area, a temporary platform within the exhibition, shows consecutively two contemporary positions selected by external curators and teams of artists.
To underscore the historical diversity of Swiss graphic design in terms of content, the exhibition
also conveys the wide range of media used. In addition to the poster smaller printed items such
as the party flyer, examples of book design and signage, memorable advertising campaigns, design objects and moving images are also shown. Many exhibits come from the museum’s own rich
poster and graphic design collection, augmented by important donations and loans. With a view
ahead to the new collection center of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, currently being created
on the Toni site, this is the first time that the unique wealth of objects in the collection is being
presented to the public at this scale.
A comprehensive, illustrated publication in German and English will appear in summer 2013. Opening Hours
Tuesday–Sunday 10 am – 5 pm, Wednesday 10 am – 8 pm
Easter and Whit: 10 am – 5 pm
Closed: Monday, as well as Good Friday 6 April
Venues
10 February to 15 April 2012
Aperçu 2011: Graphisme en Romandie
Curated from Schönherwehrs/Gregor Schönborn, Stéphane Hernandez, Nils Wehrspann,
Geneva
19 April to 3 June 2012, Opening: Wednesday, 18 April 2012, 6 pm
Things to Do
Jürg Lehni, Urs Lehni and Rafael Koch, Zurich
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Discussions at the Exhibition (in German)
Wednesday, 7 March 2012, 6 pm
Visual presences. ABM and Centre Georges Pompidou
Ernst Hiestand, Ursula Hiestand and Jean Widmer, visual designers, and Karin Gimmi, curator of
the exhibition.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012, 6 pm
‘Typography can be art under certain circumstances’
Wolfgang Weingart and Ludovic Balland, visual designers, and Barbara Junod, curator of the
Graphics Collection Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Wednesday, 21 March 2012, 6 pm
Art versus commerce?
Jean Etienne Aebi, creative consultant, and Christian Brändle, Director Museum für Gestaltung
Zürich
Wednesday, 16 May 2012, 6 pm
Handmade. Current tendencies in design practice
Dafi Kühne and Eric Andersen, visual designers, and Bettina Richter, curator of the Poster
Collection Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Public Guided Tours (in German)
Sunday, 11 am: 12, 26 February / 11, 18, 25 March / 15, 29 April / 13, 27 May / 3 June
Wednesday, 6 pm: 15, 29 February / 28 March / 4 April / 2 May
Further information on the guided tours, workshops for schools etc. are available
at: www.museum-gestaltung.ch
Press images
http://www.museum-gestaltung.ch/en/information/media-service/
Contact
Bernadette Mock, Head of Communications
Tel. +41 (0) 43 446 67 04, [email protected]
With the generous support of
Advico Young & Rubicam
Graphische Anstalt J.E. Wolfensberger AG
Migros Kulturprozent
Spillmann/Felser/Leo Burnett
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