José Albergaria & Rik Bas Baker, Festival International de l’affiche et des arts graphiques, Chaumont, FR, 2004
Ruedi Kuelling, Bic – Kugelschreiber (pen), CH, 1961
Franziska Burkhardt, Laurie Anderson – The end of the moon, CH, 2006
Walter Ballmer, Stile Olivetti, DE, 1962
1 September to 10 December 2010
Plakatraum, Limmatstrasse 55, 8005 Zurich, Switzerland
By focusing on posters composed exclusively of text, the exhibition “Letters Only” showcases the fascinating visual spectrum of the Latin typographic poster from 1915 to the present.
Matter-of-fact style typographic posters which serve as public placards have been known since the invention of book printing. The history of the modern illustrated poster, on the other hand, begins only in the late 19th century with the options offered by large-format lithographic printing. With the early illustrated poster, the text was accorded an entirely sub- ordinate role. Taking the form of a necessary ingredient, textual information was appended to the image, but not conceived as a component of the total composition.
Around 1915, however, lettering was discovered as an autonomous design element. Now, the typographic poster experienced its initial highpoint. Influenced by the Bauhaus and its successors, the rational application of type was enlivened in dynamic ways via a range of font sizes, type- faces, and colors, as well as by the function of the strict horizontal. The legibility of the mes- sage was consistently the paramount concern.
Beginning around 1960, the purism of German-Anglo Saxon typographic poster styles as countered by young designers via more sensuous, expressive variants, by novel typographic experiments and innovative designs: language was now deployed figuratively, as words conquered space, and animated letters became design material for an enthralling play with forms—with or without definite meaning.
Criteria of legibility reflect not least of all a variety of conceptions of the poster as a medium of communication. Technical developments in the realms of design and printing—from book printing with wood or lead letters to lithography, and later to photosetting and digital fonts— have also influenced the total visual impression.
The contemporary typographic poster dis-
plays a mix of diverse tendencies and testifies to the confident handling of a variety of de-
sign approaches. This exhibition demonstrates that up until the present, the poster contin-
ues to function as a field for typographic experimentation, and that the typographic poster is
fully capable of competing with the illustrated poster.
Poster Collection
Museum of Design Zurich
Limmatstrasse 57, Postfach, CH-8031 Zurich, Switzerland
www.museum-gestaltung.ch
welcome@museum-gestaltung.ch
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Friday, and Sunday, 1 pm to 5 pm, admission free
Project management: Bettina Richter, curator of the Poster Collection,
bettina.richter@zhdk.ch
Assistance: Balthasar Zimmermann, balthasar.zimmermann@zhdk.ch
You and your friends are cordially invited to the opening on Tuesday, 31 August 2010,
at 7 pm in the Plakatraum.
Publication accompanying the Exhibition
Letters Only, "Poster Collection" 22
With an essay by Emily King
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Lars Müller Publishers, G/E, 114 illustrations, 96 pages, CHF 36
Available from 31 August 2010 at: www.museum-gestaltung.ch/e-shop
© the designers
Peter von Arx, Foto: Max Mathys, Kunsthalle Basel – Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection – Theo Eble, CH, 1970
John Anderson, IBM – In the problems lies the solution, US, 1980
Anonym, Revolution, FR, 1968
Max Bill, Kunsthaus Zürich – Allianz (alliance), CH, 1947