Visual Systems
Swiss Graphic Design Histories
Edited by Lars Müller, Victor Malsy — 2020
Swiss Graphic Design Histories: Visual Arguments challenges the polished myth of the "Swiss Style" by opening the archives to reveal the messy, diverse reality behind the canon. Instead of a traditional linear history, this volume uses rare visual documents—from rejected student sketches and entrance exams to angry administrative letters—to construct a "counter-archive." It offers designers a fascinating look at the educational experiments, political struggles, and forgotten figures that truly shaped one of the most influential movements in design history.
- ISBN
- 3858818682
- ISBN 13
- 978-3858818683
- Pages
- 814
- Reading time
- 15
- Level
- Intermediate
- Publisher
- Scheidegger and Spiess
- Edition release date
- 15/06/2020
Notable Quotes
“Visual perception is visual thinking. [...] Cognitive operations called thinking are not the privilege of mental processes above and beyond perception, but the essential ingredients of perception itself.”
“The graphic designer is a very lively artist, who keeps up with his times; he is a sports-man of the arts, and what he produces is inevitably dynamic.”
“Archives are described as the invisible forces, rules, and value judgments that lead to the enunciation of a discourse... In order to reveal the invisible forces that led to the current historical narrative of Swiss Graphic Design and Typography, we have regarded the empty spaces of established archives as being as important as the objects they hold.”
“Ballmer recalls having discovered 'that the rules of sight exist and are rigid, and that creativity is free only in compliance with those rules.”
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