Rational, tightly structured, functional, serious, clean, objective and harmonious, all adjectives pertaining to the International Typographic Style or Swiss International Style.
This style emerged in Switzerland in the 1950's and slowly became worldwide by the 1970's, as the name suggests the style had a strong dependancy on typographic elements. Along with these elements the style also was recognizable by the use of a mathematical grid to supply the design with an overall orderly and unified structure. The designers used almost exclusively sans-serif fonts, strongly favoring helvetica, usually formatting the type with a flush left and ragged on the right. The type would usually be blocked together and placed strategically in the design to be noticed, and the illustrations used were mostly photographs instead of, or combined with illustrations. The finished designs were simple and analytical giving the viewer a pleasant consistency of shape and colour.
The International Typography Style became popular with the look of many Swiss cultural institutions who depended deeply on the impact and effect of their posters as advertising material.
(above) Armin Hofmann shows us an emphasis of contrasts between various design elements, but which emphasized economical use of colour and fonts.
(above) Josef Muller-Brockmann's visual exploration of rhythm and tempo in his series for the 'Zurichs Tonhalle', both are important points in the evolution of the International Typography Style.
The Style was perfectly suited to the global postwar market of the time. Corporations needed international exposure and with world wide events happening as well as the popularity of media exposure, the International Typographic Style was gaining global recognition. It gave us pleasing aesthetics, favorable timing and had good mentors to help it spread in popularity.
With America's booming economy and increasing need for graphic design in packaging and advertising grew a universal acceptance and appreciation, American designers created their own unique approach to The Style.
Thanks! 1940's - 1950's are very interesting: music, grafix, film. Days and days to read.
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