The design studio of J. R. Geigy AG was the launching pad for one of the great periods of Swiss graphic design, in the 1950s and 1960s. The open-minded corporate culture of the chemical company in Basel combined product and company advertising in an exemplary way. The resulting works reveal a modernist formal idiom without being indebted to a specific, formulaic look. There was room in it for visual symbolism as well as the acquisition of nonrepresentational art, with which some of the graphic designers involved were connected. Under the leadership of Max Schmid for many years, the studio employed Roland Aeschlimann, Karl Gerstner, Jörg Hamburger, Steff Geissbühler, Andreas His, Toshihiro Katayama, and Nelly Rudin, among others. Freelance designers such as Michael Engelmann, Gottfried Honegger, Armin Hofmann, Herbert Leupin, Warja Lavater, Numa Rick, and Niklaus Stoecklin were also used. In the 1960s, the Basel office, most especially George Giusti and Fred Troller, was involved in developing the studios of the subsidiaries in the United States and the United Kingdom, placing more emphasis on advertising. This is the first comprehensive presentation of Geigy design, an important Swiss contribution to the international history of design, in all its determination and independence.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable survey for students of Swiss graphic design,
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This review is from: Corporate Diversity: Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy 1940 - 1970 (Paperback)
The significance of J.R. Geigy SA, the Basel pharmaceutical, pesticide and dyestuff producer (later merged into Ciba-Geigy and ultimately Novartis), as a corporate patron of Swiss functional design cannot be overestimated. Flush with profits from its discovery of DDT in the early 1940s, Geigy expanded from a somewhat parochial dye maker to a diversified multinational enterprise within a short time. What was called "propaganda" played an important part in that expansion, and the firm's in-house studio engaged many Basel art and design students, as well as freelancers including the staff of Josef Mueller-Brockmann's firm in Zurich. Richard Hollis' Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965 and other recent surveys credit Geigy, but include relatively few examples of the firm's output; this may be because the materials it produced were addressed to specialized audiences in medicine, agriculture, etc. This book, which complements a Zurich exhibition I would have given anything to see, rectifies this matter considerably. There are many pieces included that have not appeared in articles on the firm's graphic output in Graphis, Gebrauchsgraphik, etc., and the well-researched text places the organization of Geigy's design studios and freelancers in much-needed perspective, and credits individual designers more thoroughly. Only shortcoming is with respect to the American and British branches' output, which could have been better represented; some masterful work, such as a superb series of pharmaceutical ads appearing in U.S. journals in 1960, isn't included. That said, this is as close to a definitive survey of the Geigy graphic design legacy as we could wish for. An indispensable book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive,
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This review is from: Corporate Diversity: Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy 1940 - 1970 (Paperback)
I purchased this book on a whim without really any idea of what to expect.
I was impressed as hell. The paper stock, the feel and the best part, the images and content were exciting. If you like Swiss design this is a must have in your collection.
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