SWISS GRAPHIC DESIGN: THE ORIGINS AND GROWTH OF AN INTERNATIONAL STYLE, 1920–1965 by Richard Hollis
Swiss graphic design was a key element in the history of Modernism. Highly industrial in form, “Neue Grafik,” or “Swiss style,” influenced the design discipline with its widespread use of photographic imagery rather than illustration and its disregard for the standard typography in use at that time—that which was specifically designed for books. Instead, Swiss type and overall design was highly formal—images and text were organized by geometric grids. Grid design, as well as Swiss sans serifs like Helvetica, became the classic emblems of Swiss graphic design.

Swiss Graphic Design showcases the Swiss style as captured in a wide range of media from 1920 to 1965, and its last chapter takes a look at how it came to be accepted internationally and is still emulated today. Through posters, advertisements, magazines, brochures, environmental design, books, and film, Hollis illustrates how many of the Swiss designers’ Modernist elements remain an indispensable part of today’s graphic language. As he concludes, “Each [design] style in succession exhausts itself. … Yet the graphic design and typography developed in Switzerland in the middle years of the 20th century was a template used and adapted by designers for 50 years. Its origin was pan-European. Its consummation and achievements were Swiss. But now it is justly described as an International Style.”
$50, hardcover, 272 pages, Yale University Press

FUTURIST TYPOGRAPHY AND THE LIBERATED TEXT by Alan Bartram
In the first quarter of the 20th century, European artists, poets, writers, architects, and designers all demanded the destruction of outdated values, attitudes, and styles. Numerous manifestos called for new forms in vision and language, such as Filippo Tomasso Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto of 1909. Marinetti’s manifesto examined painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, theater, cinema, and music, but also typography—which until then only played a minor role in the arts. Thus began the Futurist movement of playing with type and words to make an impact on graphic design, but in a literary sense.

In Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text, Bartram examines the Futurists’ approach to typography and graphic design in particular. “What all the work shown in this book has in common is that, unlike that of the Bauhaus and later designers, it is the creation of poets and artists,” the author explains. “So it is concerned with literary expression. While Italian Futurism attempted to augment the meaning of words by opening up a new approach to type, Russian Futurism, more painterly in character, liberated the presentation of poetry from existing constraints by intensifying its emotional impact with highly charged integrated illustrations. Different again, the Dada agenda was to emphasize the sound of words, even the sound of individual letters or numbers, both by visual means and vocally. But their visual vocabulary was achieved by exploiting the Italian Futurist array of typographic innovations.” With this brief paragraph, Bartram sums up the differences—apparently few, but upon further inspection quite varied—between the three Futurist sectors, strengthening his definition through examples from Futurist books and other print designs.

Through historical visuals and brief but thorough explanations, Bartram sheds light on each piece’s meaning. With a deep understanding of this genre’s influence in graphic design, he explains the Futurists’ advances in type and design within the context of contemporary artistic and literary movements.
$45, hardcover, 160 pages, Yale University Press

FRESH DIALOGUE 6: NEW VOICES IN GRAPHIC DESIGN—FRIENDLY FIRE by Nicola Bednarek (ed.)
“How the hell can anything, let alone a dialogue, stay fresh for 20-plus years?” begins James Victore in his foreword. But that’s just what the AIGA New York chapter has managed to do with its popular series of roundtable discussions, Fresh Dialogue, which for the past six years has been recreated in book form. “It has kept the conversation going —fresh and vital,” he continues. “The goal of Fresh Dialogue is to present to the design community new, emerging, and important voices in design. This year, with the support of my cochair John Fulbrook, we not only kept it fresh, but we made it current.” What follows is the June 10, 2005, dialogue between The 62 and Crye Associates—held at the Fashion Institute of Technology and moderated by Victore. Both studios are located in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, but the two firms lean toward completely opposite sides of the political spectrum.

The 62 was represented by two of its founders, Matthew McGuinness and Hubert McCabe. “Our work focuses on projects that involve issues of sustainability and community involvement,” explains McGuinness. This design and art collective of graffiti artists, political hotheads, and an organic farmer does work for museums, galleries, and not-for-profit organizations.

Standing up for Crye Associates were founders and fellow Cooper Union students Caleb Crye and Eric Fehlberg. “We do mainly engineering and industrial design,” notes Crye. “Our work ranges from simple houseware products to military items.” The firm has produced light switches, handheld PCs, Grand Prix racing motorcycles, and handgun components. They are also lead contractors on the U.S. military’s Project Scorpion, and continue to reinvent everything worn or carried by U.S. soldiers.

In Fresh Dialogue 6, the founders of both firms discuss their similarities and differences with special emphasis on the large gray area in between. Each company’s work, both past and present, is showcased in colorful detail and the processes examined from start to finish. Victore asks pertinent questions to produce interesting, inspiring, and often humorous commentary on each project.
$16.95, softcover, 128 pages, Princeton Architectural Press

NEW MASTERS OF POSTER DESIGN: POSTER DESIGN FOR THE NEXT CENTURY by John Foster
“What you are about to see in this book must be considered unexpected at best,” begins Foster in his introduction to New Masters of Poster Design. “As clients found success with other forms of marketing, and communities in general became hostile to the papering of their neighborhoods, the poster waned as a messaging vehicle throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In much the way that the album was replaced by the CD, the poster became a postcard or an e-mail blast—sad days indeed.” Foster isn’t eulogizing what the rest of the world may consider a now-dead fad; rather, he attempts throughout this book to prove that poster design is coming back, better and more impactful than ever.

Through bold, arresting visuals, Foster’s vision comes through loud and clear: “The future of the poster is now. I give you a few familiar faces and many you should know more about; from the silkscreen guerrillas in the United States to the technology-entranced Europeans to artists from every continent. This collection showcases the work of the world’s finest poster designers at the moment of this medium’s rebirth.” Each chapter is devoted to a single design studio or designer—beginning with a thought-provoking profile, followed by rich images of posters, and concluding with the backgrounds and credits behind each project. Many you’ve seen before—some can be found in past issues of STEP. Notables include Aesthetic Apparatus, Hammerpress, HendersonBromsteadArt, Luba Lukova, Modern Dog, SpotCo, Thirst, and many more. A few you may encounter for the first time in this collection, and you’ll be glad you did. Foster also embraces “The Next Wave” of poster masters with a chapter including designers such as 344 Design/Stefan G. Bucher, Decoder Ring Design Concern, F2/Dirk Fowler, and Fuszion Collaborative.

How does one differentiate a poster-design master from the simply good poster designer? “The concoction of my idealistic poster requires a dash—sometimes more—of the designer’s idiosyncratic way of looking at things,” notes esteemed designer Lanny Sommese. “This idiosyncratic approach is shared by all exceptional poster designers and is a commonality among the individuals in this collection.”
$50, hardcover, 256 pages, Rockport Publishers