Swiss designer Josef Muller-Brockmann established himself as one of the most important and prolific voices of twentieth century graphic design, setting up his own studio in Zurich in 1936 and working until his death in 1996 for numerous clients, creating a countless quantity of design for posters, which he considered "barometers of social economic, political, and cultural events, as well as mirrors of intellectual and practical activities." Muller-Brockmann began his career as an illustrator, where his aesthetic sensibilities first took root, but it was not until his turn to graphic design that he found his true calling. He is perhaps best-known as graphic design's foremost proponent of grid systems to assist in functional, objective design, which he discussed in detail in his books "Grid System in Graphic Design" and "The Graphic Designer and his Design Problems". The grid system allowed Muller-Brockmann to organize his subject matter to create more effective design, to not be overwhelmed by the seeming chaos and complexity of design decisions. Muller Brockmann's wide-range passions, interests, and commitments enables one to approach his work from several points of view and his influence graphic design extends well beyond his familiar poster work. He also was an accomplished photographer, often integrating experimental photography, photomontages, and light paintings into his design work. He loved music and over the course on many years made now famous poster designs for the Zurich Tonhalle (Concert Hall), which were highly influenced by the "feeling" aroused by music-resulting in a seemingly more abstract design. Nevertheless, all his works were built upon a grid system, and it is interesting that even those designs that appeared free of structure were rigidly organized beneath the surface. Perhaps because if his design philosophies and his ability to create design systems, Muller-Brockmann's greatest legacy may be as an influential mentor to contemporary designers. The development of the grid was also the main subject of his teaching (he held many lectures and seminars throughout the world) and of his contributions to magazines such as "New Graphic Design." In many ways, Muller-Brockmann is the perfect subject to study for a representative understanding of the so-called Swiss Design movement. Muller-Brockmann's work ranged from social/civic projects such as posters for the Swiss Automobile Club and Zurich Police to commercial projects for IBM (for whom he was design advisor in western Europe), Rosenthal, and Hermes Typewriters. His large body of work, created as graphic design gained importance during the twentieth century, serves as a gauge for the study of design history and a acted as a harbinger for what was to come. Illustrated by images of the final designs but also by sketches, production drawings, and unused design drafts from Muller-Brockmann's archive-and with long captions explaining in detail the design structure and the brief given by the client-the monograph give a complete visual understanding of Muller-Brockmann's growth as a graphic designer. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in the history of graphic design, design students, and professional designers.
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Kerry William Purcell is an expert on graphic design and a regular contributor to various graphic design magazines. His previous publications include Phaidon's Alexey Brodovitch (2002) and Weegee (2004)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
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This review is from: Josef Muller-Brockmann (Hardcover)
Not only is this book an informative view at Josef Muller-Brockmann, it's beautiful enough to display. We've really enjoyed the series, including OTl Aicher, Max Huber. Because they're all the same size and thickness, we display them together. Phaidon does it right.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Swiss school leader,
This review is from: Josef Muller-Brockmann (Hardcover)
Muller-Brockmann is rightly regarded as one of the leaders of the Swiss school of graphic design which had a huge influence on other designers, especially in Europe but also in North America and Kerry Purcell has written, what will probably be considered, the definitive biography. Large in size and published by Phaidon I was expecting something that would put his work in context and in particular I wanted to see extensive examples of this creative output which I had seen in many other books and magazines but being able to see them all in one place would be fascinating. I found the book disappointing though, both in the editorial and production. There are too many pages devoted to his early life, upbringing, paintings and especially graphic design up to the fifties and Muller-Brockman (when he was thirty-five) considers much of this work mediocre. I think his output really only becomes interesting from the early fifties onwards with a series of stunning concert posters and the sort of work shown in New Graphic Design magazine. Issue seven had a long (thirty-seven pages) article he wrote called `A Training System for the Graphic Designer' and I would have expected to see more than just the one spread from this article shown on page 149 of the book. The covers to four of his books are shown but not spreads from inside, the distinctive brochure work for Rosenthal ceramics has too few examples to really convey the beauty of the work he did for them. The concert posters, fortunately displayed large, do look a treat, though here it might have been useful for readers to have seen more than just the one grid Muller-Brockmann created for them. My other disappointment is with the book's production and perhaps not surprisingly so. Phaidon in the past have created a reputation for publishing quality art books but in recent years I think they have become hopelessly over-designed. This book is a good example of this. They can't even get a little thing like page numbers right. Throughout the book they appear in three different positions on the outer margins of left and right-hand pages, three different positions when next to each other near the book's spine, the index pages has another position for them. Picture captions likewise meander across spreads and usually tend not to be near the relevant image. Text columns fall short on many pages because there are no paragraph indents, a line space is used instead. Pictures are too small despite there being huge amounts of empty page space. This is just trendy designers doing their own thing and taking no interest in providing information to the reader with legibility and clarity. The surprising thing, to me as a publication designer, is that no one queried any of this and the book was published. As I said earlier this will probably become the standard work about Muller-Brockmann, a pity because I think he deserves something much better. ***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
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