介绍: New Perspectives - 麻省理工学院人工智能研究专业

介绍: New Perspectives
on Swiss Graphic Design
Davide Fornari, Robert Lzicar,
Sarah Owens, Michael Renner,
Arne Scheuermann, 彼得·J. Schneemann

Why Swiss Graphic Design Again, 现在?
In reviewing the two publications—“Josef Müller-Brockmann”
by Kerry William Purcell and “Swiss Graphic Design: The Ori-
gins and Growth of an International Style, 1920–1965” by Richard
Hollis—Michael J. Golec noted that “when it comes to the graphic
design of Josef Müller-Brockmann, we had to contend with what
John Walker has referred to as ‘typological’ approaches-or studies
and categorizations of designed objects according to type.” This
approach applies not only to the work of Müller-Brockmann but
also to the entire previous investigation of graphic design from
瑞士. 或者, to put it more sharply, the construct of Swiss
graphic design represents an outdated historiography based on a
“sorting out of objects according to ‘authorship, chronology,
national and individual styles, and authenticity’” more than any
other label in design history.1 Golec goes on to ask the question,
“what then constitutes an informed history of the graphic design of
Müller-Brockman?” This special edition is an attempt to answer
this question when related to Swiss graphic design.

In graphic design history, the terms “Swiss graphic design,”
“Swiss typography,” or “Swiss style” regularly denote an inter-
national style that can be applied to a variety of media, 例如
posters, 图书, corporate identities, and signage systems. 这
style emerged in Switzerland during the 1950s, was used by
graphic designers in Switzerland and many other Western coun-
尝试, and gained an excellent reputation worldwide. 然而, 这
term was used not only to define a certain, specific style, 但是也
in many variations to describe graphic design from Switzerland in
一般的, or design produced by Swiss graphic designers. 这
definitional blurring has in fact contributed to the success of
the term. The nomination of “Swiss graphic design” as one of
eight Swiss Candidatures proposed to UNESCO as an Intangible
Cultural Heritage in 2014 confirms the relevance of “traditional
craftsmanship.”2 From this perspective, it becomes clear that
“Swiss graphic design and typography” has not yet come to an

https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_e_00620

1 迈克尔·J. Golec, “A Review Essay,”

设计问题 24, 不. 2 (春天 2008): 85.
See “Graphic design and typography,“ 在
Die lebendigen Traditionen der Schweiz
[Living Traditions in Switzerland],
http://www.lebendigetraditionen.ch/
traditionen/00247/index.html?lang=en
(accessed April 10, 2020).

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结尾: “It is still negotiated in classrooms, studios, exhibition spaces,
and publications.”3 Furthermore, it is still in production and has
been claimed as “one of the country’s leading products.”4 The label,
“Swiss graphic design and typography,” thus oscillates between
a closed mythology and a history still-in-the-making. 然而,
what is missing is, 一方面, an analysis of the discourses
that have produced the labels of “Swiss graphic design” and
“Swiss typography” and, 在另一, an effort to look beyond the
boundaries of these concepts so that stories can be told about them
that are different from those that have long been accepted. 这
special issue intends to re-examine the existing networks, 实践-
泰斯, and media that determine this discourse and to identify ones
that might have been hitherto overlooked. 因此, 我们建议
new approaches to graphic design history that go far beyond previ-
ous studies of the discipline.

Historiographical Challenges
The continuing and broad public interest in Swiss graphic design
was reflected in the approximately 30,000 visitors to the exhibition,
100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design, at the Museum für Gestaltung
Zürich in 2012.5 One daily newspaper reported on the exhibition as
“a search for and discovery of a unique Swiss design identity,“ 和
it proved to be an event of national and international relevance.6
Part of this exhibition was a “continuous frieze of posters docu-
menting the 100-year period of the show (which goes along with)
the thirteen crucial moments of Swiss graphic design.”7 Yet, unlike
these moments derived from traditional graphic design historiog-
拉菲, the frieze “does not select posters because of their aesthetic
quality or the ideological similarities between them, 但反而
applies criteria such as politics, zeitgeist, 性别, 地理, nos-
talgia, and national identity to [他们的] selection and sequence.”
This curatorial move was “buil[t] on the existing canon of Swiss
graphic design” but also “open[编辑] up the discussion to historical
issues beyond graphic design.”8 That this curatorial approach was
considered innovative is not surprising. 毕竟, the conventional
historiography of Swiss graphic design had been on a different
课程, entailing 50 years of objectification, personification, 和
glorification. Revising this outdated perspective was important in
itself and also seemed necessary for another reason:

If design historians are to present themselves as valuable
contributors to such collective historical research, 他们
have to make a persuasive case for the relevance of their
knowledge to fora outside of their field. This is the
challenge I put to the design history community. ……
Design historians have to broaden the understanding
of design they communicate to their students, 和他们

设计问题: 体积 37, 数字 1 冬天 2021

Robert Lzicar and Davide Fornari,
“Writing Graphic Design History in
瑞士,” in Mapping Graphic Design
History in Switzerland, 编辑. 罗伯特
Lzicar and Davide Fornari (苏黎世: Triest
Verlag, 2016), 8.
Karin Gimmi, “介绍,“ 在 100 Years
of Swiss Graphic Design, 编辑. Museum
für Gestaltung Zürich: 等人. (苏黎世: Lars
Müller Publishers, 2014), 9.
The exhibition, 100 Jahre Schweizer
Grafik, took place at the Museum für
Gestaltung Zürich from February 10,
2012, to June 3, 2012 and was curated
by Barbara Junod and Karin Gimmi.
Katrin Schregenberger, “Die Schweizer
Grafik von Weltformat,” in Schaffhauser
Nachrichten, 二月 8, 2012: 29. 在里面
original German, “Die Ausstellung 100
Jahre Schweizer Grafik fühlt sich an wie
eine Identitätssuche und -findung einer
ureigenen Schweizer Gestaltungsweise.”

7 Davide Fornari, “Triennale Design

Museum 5. Grafica Italiana vs 100 Years
of Swiss Graphic Design” [Triennale
Design Museum 5. Italian Graphic Design
与 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design],
Progetto Grafico [平面设计], 21
(夏天 2012): 63.
Robert Lzicar and Amanda Unger,
“Designed Histories: Visual Historiogra-
phy and Canonization in Swiss Graphic
Design History,” in Mapping Graphic
Design History in Switzerland, 编辑.
Robert Lzicar and Davide Fornari (苏黎世:
Triest Verlag, 2016), 267.

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also need to pay closer attention to the ways that design
researchers other than historians are thinking about the
主题. Is the design history community up to the task?
I hope so.9

Swiss Graphic Design as a Glocal Issue
Summarizing the literature on graphic design and typography in
瑞士, one can say that it was initially dominated by a group
of male designers who wrote about selected objects in professional
journals published by professional associations, such as the Typo-
grafische Monatsblätter [Swiss Typographic Magazine] of the Sch-
weizerischer Typographenbund [Swiss Association of Typographers],
and for non-institutional networks like Neue Grafik [New Graphic
设计], which was run by a Zurich-based editorial collective that
also shared professional values. These publications formed the
foundation of “konstruktive Gebrauchsgrafik” [constructive
applied graphics] 和, 回想起来, of the historical construction
of the Swiss Style.

This thematic focus was followed by publications focusing
on the key actors of the era—the life and work of individual
designers, 公司, or specific media, and their designs or sub-
项目, such as posters, 图书, or typefaces.10 This genealogy of pub-
lications has continued into our own time. Because their authors
operated mostly in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, 他的-
toriography has tended to overlook the Swiss periphery, 例如
the French- and Italian-speaking regions, as well as the fact that
professional graphic design at that time was an interregional and
international practice.

Many of these texts were authored by experts or journalists,
and often also by graphic designers themselves who were targeting
a large audience of other professionals or design enthusiasts. 这
important role of practitioners in the historiography of graphic
design and the problems resulting from this disciplinary perspec-
tive are well known.11 Designed by and for graphic designers, 他们的
publications “seem to ‘design’ the past, primarily by creating
visual relationships,” which “contributed to both the strong iden-
tity of the label Swiss graphic design and its degree of recognition
in Switzerland and abroad.”12 However, this visual historiography
has resulted in a strong canon and a “neat history” that reduces a
rich past with a vast number of different designers and approaches
down “to a certain period and certain actors within that period.”13

More recent narratives have been devoted to aesthetics,
styles, and eras or, less frequently, to selected places. Contempo-
rary practices and attitudes are described by referencing historical
主题. 然而, many of these histories lack a research question
and thus rarely enter into the academic discourse, representing in-
stead an outdated approach to graphic design history that neither

维克多·马戈林, “Design in History,”
设计问题 25, 不. 2 (春天 2009):
104–5.

10 For a comprehensive repertoire of Swiss
graphic design, see Mapping Graphic
Design History in Switzerland, 编辑.
Robert Lzicar and Davide Fornari (苏黎世:
Triest Verlag, 2017), 283–312.
11 Teal Triggs, “Graphic Design History:

过去的, 展示, 和未来,” 设计问题
27, 不. 1 (冬天 2011): 4.

12 Robert Lzicar and Amanda Unger,

“Designed Histories: Visual Historiogra-
phy and Canonization in Swiss Graphic
Design History,” in Mapping Graphic
Design History in Switzerland, 编辑.
Robert Lzicar and Davide Fornari (苏黎世:
Triest Verlag, 2016), 267–68.
13 Sarah Owens, “‘The Whole Picture:
Locating Women in Swiss Graphic
Design History’ or Rather: ‘The Graphic
Design Canon: When History Gets Too
Neat’,” conference presentation, AGI
Open Conference, Biel/Bienne,
九月 22, 2015.

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设计问题: 体积 37, 数字 1 冬天 2021

14 For one exception, see Tan Wälchli, “这
Afterlife of Swiss Style: An Experiment in
政治经济,” in The Most Beautiful
Swiss Books: The present issue, 编辑.
Bundesamt für Kultur et al., (Bern:
Bundesamt für Kultur, 2008), 72–83. 在
这篇文章, Wälchli critically questions
the attribution of Swiss national clichés
to graphic design and relates it to Swiss
“spiritual national defence” during the
Second World War.

15 This project was supported within the

framework of the Swiss National Science
Foundation SNSF Sinergia scheme, 哪个
promotes collaboration between research
groups “that propose breakthrough
research.” See http://www.snf.ch/en/
funding/programmes/sinergia/Pages/
default.aspx (accessed April 10, 2020).
The research team included: Prof.
博士. Arne Scheuermann (main applicant),
Prof. Michael Renner, Prof. 博士. Sarah
Owens, Prof. 博士. 彼得·J. Schneemann
(co-applicants), Prof. 博士. Davide Fornari,
Prof. Robert Lzicar (co-coordinators
and researchers), Tina Braun (assistant
coordinator), 博士. Chiara Barbieri, Prof.
Rudolf Barmettler, Roland Früh, Jonas
Niedermann, Prof. François Rappo
(研究人员), and Jonas Berthod, Sandra
Bischler, Constance Delamadeleine, Ueli
Kaufmann, Sarah Klein, and Sara Zeller
(博士生). This research project
was supervised by a panel of experts
including Prof. 博士. Jeremy Aynsley
(University of Brighton), Prof. 博士. 芭芭拉
Bader (Akademie der Bildenden Künste
Stuttgart), Prof. 博士. Claude Hauser
(Université de Fribourg), †Prof. Em.
博士. 维克多·马戈林 (University of Illinois
at Chicago), Prof. 博士. Catherine de Smet
(Université Paris-VIII), and Prof. 博士. Teal
Triggs (Royal College of Art, 伦敦). 为了
further information, see www.sgdtr.ch
(accessed April 10, 2020).

16 A four-volume publication with contribu-

tions from all three sub-projects and nine
case studies will be published in March
2021, see Swiss Graphic Design Histo-
里斯, 编辑. Davide Fornari, Robert Lzicar,
Sarah Owens, Michael Renner, Arne
Scheuermann and Peter J. Schneemann,
(苏黎世: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2021).

broaches the problem of the category “Swiss” for a contemporary
discussion of graphic design, nor deals with the complex under-
lying structures of graphic design practices, 话语, 网络-
ing actions, and curricula.14

In This Special Issue
This special issue builds on the results of the research project,
“Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited.” The project
涉及 12 researchers from 7 Swiss universities and 13 associate
researchers over 4 年. 因此, it was the largest academic research
project in the field of design ever funded by the Swiss National
Science Foundation—the science research support organization
mandated by the Swiss Federal Government.15 This research project
focused on Swiss graphic design and typography and its ongoing
合法性, reputation, and status in three sub-projects: “Principles
of Education,” “Networks of Practice,” and “Strategies of Dissemi-
nation.” It considered “Swiss graphic design and typography” not
as a monolithic label or style, but as a multi-faceted construction
within an international discourse. This perspective was taken into
account by the collaboration of the team’s Swiss and foreign
研究人员, who worked in mixed research groups. They pro-
duced various small-scale narratives that together offered a more
complete and flexible interpretation of “Swiss graphic design and
typography” than extant literature has constructed, and these nar-
ratives questioned the existing canon of Swiss graphic design in a
variety of ways. By focusing on historiographical and methodolog-
ical challenges, the articles selected for the present special issue
highlight these new perspectives.16

Several design schools have retrospectively attained a myth-
ical status. This rise in status has often occurred hand in hand with
the rise in fame of their faculty because of their inclusion in the
graphic design discourse through articles on teaching principles in
trade magazines, internationally disseminated educational books,
and celebratory yearbooks. In such a hagiographic context, 之一
the most important voices is absent. Sandra Bischler’s essay, “K
and output—Two Student Publications in Light of Mid-Twentieth
Century Graphic Design Education,” focuses on K, a magazine
edited and published by a group of students at the Allgemeine
Gewerbeschule Basel (Vocational Trade School, later the Basel
School of Design) in the early 1960s, which has been completely
neglected in the historiography on Swiss graphic design to date. 经过
analyzing K’s contents and editorial design in comparison with
other schools of the same period—primarily the Ulm School of
Design and its students’ publication output—Bischler reveals close
connections with certain educational philosophies and also uncov-
ers previously overlooked debates on graphic design education.

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设计问题: 体积 37, 数字 1 冬天 2021

Designers themselves have overexploited their mono-
graphs to enhance their reputations through the years. 这些
monographs include self-referenced books, in which designers
themselves showcase the best of their production in chronological
order or within taxonomies, and in retrospective, post-mortem
catalogs of works with an approach typical for art history. 这
essay in this issue by Chiara Barbieri and Davide Fornari, “Speak-
ing Italian with a Swiss-German Accent: Walter Ballmer and Swiss
Graphic Design in Milan,” asks critical questions about the oft-
repeated rhetoric that hailed graphic design in Milan as a mixture
of Swiss precision and Italian poeticism. It takes Walter Ballmer as
a case study to revisit the monographic format: a Swiss graphic
designer trained in Basel who spent most of his life working in
米兰. Largely based on unpublished archival material from the
Ballmer Archive and on oral history through interviews with col-
leagues and clients, this article shows how designers have shaped
their biographies by excluding critical aspects from their self-
表示. 这里, networks of people (designers, assistants,
客户) are investigated outside the heroic approach that is other-
wise typical of the celebrity-centered narrative.

Although Paris and Milan were long-favored destinations
for designers trained in Switzerland, the former remains an under-
explored scene in its exploitation of a “Swiss Style,” connected to
stereotypes such as precision and quality. The essay by Constance
Delamadeleine, “Promoting Swiss Graphic Design and Typogra-
phy Abroad: The Case of Paris in the 1960s,” explores the network
of different actors involved in the formation and dissemination of
“Swiss graphic design and typography” in France, and it sheds
light on the different agendas and strategies linked to this process.
Delamadeleine here reveals how, during a period when Europe
was being newly constructed as a political community and before a
backdrop of the liberalization of world trade, both state actors and
non-state actors aimed to strengthen Switzerland’s international
position by reinforcing abroad the value and significance of its cul-
tural and economic presence. The “Swiss living abroad” became
important in furthering this national objective. In Paris, a network
of Swiss citizens was established in the 1960s comprising different
stakeholders, including the graphic designers and typographers
who contributed to disseminating and promoting Swiss graphic
design and typography on the French stage and beyond.

Swiss graphic designers working outside Switzerland were
not alone in contributing to the dissemination of Swiss graphic
设计. The non-Swiss who reflected on graphic design practice in
Switzerland from a foreigner’s perspective were just as important.
Robert Lzicar’s essay, “Swiss Graphic Design: A British Invention?,”
explores the role of British graphic designers in transforming

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设计问题: 体积 37, 数字 1 冬天 2021

“konstruktive Gebrauchsgrafik” into both the “Swiss Style” and a
general approach to design problems—a transformation that was
promoted beyond Swiss national borders. Interviews with graphic
designers and other experts reveal a complex process of co-defini-
tion at both local and international levels. Lzicar’s essay calls into
question the concept of Swiss graphic design as a monolithic label.
在文献中, the history of Swiss graphic design regu-
larly is told as a linear development from illustrative tendencies to
Modernist abstraction. As shown in recent research, these narra-
tives were largely constructed and disseminated by a group of
Modernist graphic designers through journals and their own pub-
lications. The Modernists themselves usually segregate designers
of that time into two camps—namely, the individual or illustrative
versus the abstract or Modern. This dichotomy became established
early on and continues to shape the narrative of Swiss graphic
design to this day. 然而, the essay by Sara Zeller, “Centering
the Periphery: Reassessing Swiss Graphic Design Through the
Prism of Regional Characteristics,” argues that design practice in
Switzerland in the 1950s was more diverse than hitherto assumed.
Outside an exclusive circle of practitioners, illustration and ab-
straction were understood more as design methods than as atti-
学习. Taking this observation as her starting point, Zeller looks
beyond this dichotomy and draws on hitherto unpublished sources
of the time to challenge the traditional understanding of Swiss
graphic design.

To conclude, we would like to refer to the question of
the state of design history as asked by Teal Triggs in 2011. 在
end of her article, “Graphic Design History: 过去的, 展示, 和
未来,” she calls for “more trained design historians to provide
a context to the understanding of graphic objects, movements,
和人;” she also desires that they “celebrate the practitioner-
historians who also have the capacity to locate, 解释, 和骗局-
tribute to the development of graphic design practice.”17 We have
sought to apply this dual approach in the present special issue. 如果
we look at the background of our authors, then “either/or” distinc-
tions and polarities develop into “both/and” realities, to “yes and
yes.” Most of these authors have completed a practical training in
graphic design, have gained professional experience, and have only
decided subsequently to engage with the history of their practice.
The project, “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited,”
created structures for them to develop their academic skills and to
deal in a scholarly manner with historiography in graphic design.
The concept of the practitioner-historian must therefore be rede-
fined for the future.

17 Triggs, “Graphic Design History: 过去的,

展示, 和未来,” 6.

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设计问题: 体积 37, 数字 1 冬天 2021
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