Josef Müller-Brockmann
Josef Müller- Brockmann ( born May 9, 1914 in Rapperswil, Switzerland, † 30 August 1996 Unterengstringen, Switzerland ) was a Swiss graphic designer, typographer, writer and teacher.
Müller- Brockmann was a leading theoretician and practitioner of Swiss typography. He worked as a graphic designer since 1952. 1957 to 1960 he worked at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich, in 1963 at the College of Design in Ulm as a lecturer. He was a member of the International Center for the Typographic Arts ( ICTA ) in the 1960s.
In design was Müller- Brockmann at the porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal AG in Selb, Germany, IBM Europe, Olivetti, and the Swiss Federal Railways operates.
He was awarded the title " Honorary Designer for Industry " by the Royal Society of Arts in London in 1988, with the " Gold Medal of the Canton of Zurich for Cultural Merit " in 1987 and won the " Middleton Award" from the American Center for Design in Chicago in 1990 and the Swiss Federal Design Award 1993.
The design approach Müller- Brockmann
Josef Müller- Brockmann's way of working was strongly in the service of each topic to be processed. He preferred a businesslike approach, which should convey thoughts in the first place and was to be regarded only secondarily as an artistic form. The graphical form should be subordinated to the topic.
Müller- Brockmann's development began in the illustration, but he soon went to the " factual Graphic" about which seemed more objective. He constructed his work mainly of geometric forms whose proportions and distances in a strict mathematical ratio stood to each other, as well as typographic elements. As fonts he used exclusively Serif Fonts. By dispensing with ornaments and the resulting objectivity, readability it seemed to him expedient. To compose the picture elements he used a grid system, which he described in detail in his book "Grid systems in graphic design".
The graphic designer profession in the view Josef Müller- Brockmann
The job of a graphic designer is, according to Josef Müller -Brockmann one of the most universal artistic professions. Müller- Brockmann demanded that graphic designers should except design skills also have technical, economic and cultural competences. As the field of advertising encompasses all professional areas, graphic designers should be in Müller- Brockmann's view also able to capture the economic and cultural importance of a problem. Generally, he was convinced of the great importance of the creative work that should also deal with social concerns.
If the work of the graphic artist put in print, so the best results are achieved when the graphic also has technical knowledge. So he can monitor the process of reproduction itself and already knows the design of the printed matter of the possibilities and limitations of technology. At the School of Applied Arts in Zurich and at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm Josef Müller- Brockmann put his views also concretely in teaching. He has also written a chapter on the " systematic graphic training " in his book " design problems of the graphic artist ."
Publications
- Design problems of the graphic artist. depths in 1961
- History of visual communication. depths in 1971
- History of the poster. Zurich 1971
- Grid systems in graphic design / screen systems for the visual design. depths in 1981
- My life: playful seriousness and serious game. Baden 1994
- Lars Müller: Josef Müller- Brockmann. Baden 1994