SOCKS

An online magazine of Art, Architecture, Media, Culture, Sounds, Territories, Technology)

  • Media
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Culture
  • Sounds
  • Territories
  • Visual Atlas

Joseph Müller-Brockmann: Musica Viva Posters for the Zurich Tonhalle

November 30, 2016 by Fosco Lucarelli 3 Comments

Josef Müller-Brockmann (1914-1996) was an influential graphic and exhibition designer and photographer who lived and worked in Zurich. As the leading practitioner and theorist of the Swiss Style (also known as the International Style), he fostered the use of grid-based designs (through his book Grid Systems in Graphic Design) in order to establish a universal medium of graphic expression.

Starting from the late 1950’s, Müller-Brockmann taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule (the design and art school) in Zurich and at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, Germany, influencing generations of European graphic designers.

Between 1958 and 1965 he founded and co-edited the magazine Neue Grafik (New Graphic Design), that, according to Marcus Kraft, “can be seen as a programmatic platform and effective publishing organ of Swiss graphic design“.

Apart of the legendary corporate design and wayfinding system which he created for the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) together with the SBB chief architect Uli Huber in 1982, he was mostly known for the ‘Musica viva’ poster series for the Zurich Tonhalle.

The posters sought for a visual linkage between the language of Constructivism and musical harmonic structures, showing the most complete freedom within the rigid system of the grid.

 

His posters for the Tonhalle reveal an artist at work, as well as one who fathoms the world of communication, with a particular audience for a particular function. His posters are comfortable in the worlds of art and music. They do not try to imitate musical notation, but they evoke the very sounds of music by visual equivalents – not a simple task. – Excerpt from the Paul Rand’s foreword for the book: “Joseph Müller-Brockmann, Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design”

 

1. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1957

1. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1957

 

 

2. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1957

2. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1957

 

3. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1958

3. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1958

 

4. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1958

4. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1958

 

5. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1958

5. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1958

 

6. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1959

6. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1959

 

7. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1959

7. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1959

 

8. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1961

8. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1961

 

9. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1969

9. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1969

 

10. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1971

10. Zurich Tonhalle. musica viva. Concert poster, 1971

 

11. Zurich Tonhalle. Concert poster, 1958

11. Zurich Tonhalle. Concert poster, 1958

 

12. Zurich Tonhalle. June Festival. Concert poster, 1951

12. Zurich Tonhalle. June Festival. Concert poster, 1951

 

13. Zurich Tonhalle. June Festival. Concert poster, 1951

13. Zurich Tonhalle. June Festival. Concert poster, 1951

 

14. Zurich Tonhalle. June Festival. Concert poster, 1959

14. Zurich Tonhalle. June Festival. Concert poster, 1959

 

Further reading:

Marcus Kraft, Swiss Star, in Grafik

Joseph Müller-Brockmann “Swiss Style”, in Grapheine

Yvonne Schwemer-Scheddin and Josef Müller-Brockmann Reputations, an interview in Eye Magazine, winter 1995

 

Scans source: Joseph Müller-Brockmann, Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design (Edited by Lars Müller) – Lars Müller Publishers, 1995.

Via: Chaudron

 

Related Posts

  • Findings on Elasticity, Lars Müller Publishers

    208 pp / 200 x 270 mm / paperback / english publisher: Lars Müller Publishers…

  • Kaupungin Arkkitehtuuri: Posters from the Museum of Finnish Architecture (1950-2000)

    The Museum of Finnish Architecture (MFA) in Helsinki, has an interesting collection of posters of  its exhibitions from the 1950's to…

  • Loos Villa Müller
    "I do not draw plans, facades or sections": Adolf Loos and the Villa Müller

    Villa Müller in Prague was designed by architect Adolf Loos, assisted by architect Karel Lhota,…

  • "Must it Stay that Way?" Critical Posters by Gunter Rambow (1971)

    In 1971, German graphic designer and photographer Gunter Rambow produced a series of posters tackling…

  • Gustavs Klucis's 'Constructions' and Other Works

    Gustavs Klucis (1895 - 1938) was a painter, sculptor and graphic designer. He was born in…

Filed Under: Art, Media, Representation: Graphic Scores, Sounds Tagged With: Design, grid, music

Trackbacks

  1. When Art & Science Meet: Inside the Mind of a Designer - Threadless Blog says:
    July 3, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    […] Some of Josef Mueller-Brockmann’s poster work (via socks-studio). […]

  2. CRAP! Design Principles – Allyson Manak Majer says:
    September 24, 2017 at 11:01 pm

    […] Designer by Josep Müller-Brockmann source […]

  3. REFLECTIVE REPORT: PART 1, 2 & 3 – CAGD390 / Madelene McGuinness says:
    November 9, 2017 at 6:45 am

    […] by further research into the Swiss Typographic style of the 1950’s and designers such as Josef Müller-Brockmann and his posters for the Zurich Tonhalle. This research and new direction led me to develop my poster campaign in a truly reductionist […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr

Socks is a non-linear journey through distant territories of human imagination.

About | Visual Atlas | Topics

We are Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli from Microcities. Ask us anything

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr


SOCKS is a project by Fosco Lucarelli and Mariabruna Fabrizi of MICROCITIES, Architecture Cityscape, Landscape.
Except where otherwise noted, the content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Whenever possible we try to attribute content (images, videos, and quotes) to their creators and original sources. Please feel free to write us if you notice misattributions or wish something to be removed.
SOCKS is powered by WordPress.