SWISS DESIGN

Known by several different names; Swiss Design, International Style or International Typographic Style, originated in Switzerland in the 1940s & 50s.   This is a graphic design style which emphasis readability, neutrality and also cleanliness. Characteristics of the style are asymmetric layouts, the use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk, flush left and ragged right text.  The style was led by designers Josef Müller-Brockmann at the Zurich School of Arts and Krafts and Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of Design.

Another characteristic was the preference given to photography rather than illustration or drawings. They combined typography and photography as it was seen to be the most effective means of visual communication.

To outline other characteristics of Swiss Design we can recap as follows:

The pioneers of the Swiss Grid Style believed that the visual appearance of the work is not as important as the integrity of its philosophical tenets whereby; 

• Design is a socially worthwhile and serious vocation.
• Within design there is no room for eccentricity. Design should be grounded on universal artistic principles, and using a scientific approach should provide a well-defined solution to a problem.
• The designer is a visual communicator and not an artist. The designer acts as an objective and reliable transmitter of important information between members of society.
• The ideal of design is to achieve clarity and order.

At the School of Applied Arts Ernst Keller who was a professor there began to develop a graphic design course which included typography.  His was of teaching was to transcend a philosophy of style that dictated “ the solution to the design problem should emerge from its content”.  His students learnt the simple uses of geometric forms, vibrant colours to further clarify the meaning behind every design. 

The International Typographic Style in the 1950s saw the coming together of various san-serif font families such as Univers which then went to pave the way for Max Miedinger and Edourad Hoffman (his colleague) to create the font Neue Haas Grotesk, which we more commonly refer to as Helvetica.
Taking into consideration what was happening at the time, after World War II, there was an increase of trade between countries and typography and design were essential in the process of helping with clarity, objectivity, region-less glyphs and symbols which where an must when it came to communication between international partners.  

The International Typographic Style later then found itself main use in being essential for communication and expanded its borders further out to America and one of the first American designers to integrate the International Typographic Style was Rudolph de Harak and predominantly used on book jacket designs for McGraw-Hill publishers in the 1960s. The Swiss design in America started to find its way more and more throughout infrastructure and public places.  As Helvetica it became one of the most famous fonts around and still is prominently and vastly used today as a Sans Serif of choice. 

Bibliography
Flask, D. (2009). http://www.designishistory.com/home/swiss/. Retrieved January 23, 2015, from Design is History : http://www.designishistory.com/home/swiss/
Novin, G. (n.d.). Swiss Grade Style . Retrieved Jan 23, 2015, from guity-novin.blogspot.com: http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2011/07/chapter-42-swiss-grade-style-and-dutch.html
Wikipedia, t. f. (3, December 2014). International Typographic Style . Retrieved January 2015, 23, from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Typographic_Style