Fusion of Swiss and American Design

Modern Graphics Design is based on the combination of American and Swiss graphic design. Originally, American and Swiss design were distinctly different styles. Over time, ideas and styles mixed and became indistinguishable, creating modern design commonly used in the corporate world today.

Design Innovations and Desiners from Switzerland:

Isotype emerged in Switzerland and Germany in the 1960s. It was designed to be an International Style of Typography. The purpose was to express information with graphic images instead of text. In this way, it could be read by anyone, even someone illiterate or unfamiliar with a language it would have been written in if it were written with letters. Otto Neurath was the founder of Isotype and the Isotype Institute.

The International style of typography rejects personal expression and embraces universal form.

Proportional grids were introduced by Max Bill and Theo Balmer. Grids could be used to structure designs. Swiss Design is well known for the use of modular grids.

Anton Stankowski contributed to design with the development of abstract "tectonics" used to convey kinetic motion and invisible processes.

The School at ULM utilized a comprehension of signs and symbols in multilingual formats.
The Basal School of Design was considered the "laboratory" of the international style. Design ideas and philosophy of the Basal School of Design spread through students and the publication of books on design methodology from the Basal School of Design.

Armen Hoffman used point, line, and plane to develop his philosophy on graphic design.

Muller Brockman created harmony by using mathematical spacial division and treated image as objective symbol.

American Design Innovations and Designers:

In the 940s, Modernists fled from Hitler and Fascists to other countries. This lead to the development of an American approach to modernist design with New York as a cultural center. European and American attitudes mixed and created new styles of modernism.

Some very influential individuals were Lester Beal and Alexy Brodovitch.

Lester Beal combined Reductionist and Dada methods of type with American and European design tendencies.

Alexy Brodovitch introduced the use of photography to American magazines and editorial layouts. As the art director for Harper's Bazaar, he introduced an international style of design with emphasis on photography. This has changed the course of magazine design in America.

Vignelli Associates created graphic maps of the New York Subway System. Swiss influence can be seen in the design of the New York Subway system map because of the use of isotype symbols.

Branding and Corporate Design was used and developed a lot in America. Some influential designers of this time period were Saul Brass, Bradbury Thompson, Paul Rand, and the Chermayoff and Geison Associates.