Typographic & Swiss Posters

When you hear the term “Swiss Design” the first thing you might think of is clean, minimal, and modern. While all of those descriptions do fit, there’s much more to it than that. The use of lines, colours (or lack of), shapes, and personality is what make Swiss Design unique. 

Key rules in making Swiss Inspired Designs :
- Don’t over design: Minimalism is Key
- Using black and white is classic for a reason
- Use Photography with A minimalist composition
- Bright colours will get you noticed
- A muted colour palette makes for a chic design
- Give your design room to breathe with whitespace
- Shapes can unify your design
- Designing with a grid provides structure
- Typography can be as important as an image
- Use your design to show your personality


This research will enable me to Incorporate some or all of these Swiss Design principles into my work. Like other Influences designers and leaders in the world of design have displayed the trend of minimalism and modernity, that only continues to grow. Many products, brands, and business cards take elements from Swiss Design and incorporate them into a style most suitable. 

Swiss Poster Design 

Typographic Poster Design

A new typographic design style emerged during the 1950s that soon became the predominant graphic style by the 70s. Due to the strong reliance on typographic elements this style became known as the International Typographic Style. The style was defined by the use of a mathematical grid to provide an orderly unified structure, The use of sans serif typefaces such as Helvetica. A flush left and ragged right format, black and white photography in place of a hand drawn illustration. The overall aesthetic is simple rational, structured, clear, objective and harmonious. 

The style was refined at two design schools in Switzerland, one in Basel led by Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder, and the other in Zurich under the leadership of Josef Muller-Brockmann. All had studied with Ernst Keller at the Zurich School of Design before WW11, where the principles of the Bauhaus and Jan Tschichold's new typography was taught.