The Birth of a Style
The Basel education model of the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule, later known as Basel School of Design, was an important pioneer that led to the international breakthrough of new Swiss graphic design. Strict, yet undogmatic views coupled with a pragmatic attitude towards design issues, experimental audacity and a clear commitment to modernism triggered a broad graphic design movement reaching out from Basel to Europe and the USA.
Dorothea Hofmann tells the story of Swiss graphic design from a new perspective. Starting with a deliberate focus on Basel, she paints a differentiated picture of this national graphic design movement, which, in its complexity, overcomes the constraints of the Zurich constructive concrete direction with which Swiss Style has generally been associated until today. The author gives a detailed account of the movement’s origins, which date back to the 19th century, discussing the development of graphic design education in Switzerland and coherently describing its breakthrough as an international style.
Former teachers and students of Basel Allgemeine Gewerbeschule who have contributed decisively to the international reputation of Swiss Design with their works are at the centre of this book: Hermann Eidenbenz, Emil Ruder, Armin Hofmann, Karl Gerstner, Gérard Ifert, Nelly Rudin, Pierre Mendell, Wolfgang Weingart, Kenneth Hiebert, Dan Friedman, April Greiman, and many more.
After several years of working in the publishing business, we (Kerstin Forster and Andrea Wiegelmann) decided to start up our own publishing house and founded Triest Verlag für Architektur, Design und Typografie in May 2015. Triest stands for exclusive, beautifully designed books for specialists produced to the highest quality standards and for choice special editions crafted specifically for well-informed people who are often specialists in their field. In the various areas of our programme we cater for a range of focal topics that we accompany with a programme of events geared to the specific titles with the aim of discussing the subject matter of our books with our readers and developing on the various topics. Since 2017 we have been a member of SWIPS – Swiss Independent Publishers. Triest Verlag receives a grant for the years 2021 to 2025 from the Federal Office of Culture as part of the Swiss publishers’ subsidies.
Language: English
Number of pages: 472
Dimensions: 19x25cm
ISBN: 978-3-03863-077-7
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