Bettina Richter – författare

With texts by the editors and Hans-Rudolf Bosshard, Christoph Bignens, Max Bruinsma, Jürgen Döring, Meret Ernst, Ulrike Felsing, Roland Früh, Ariel Herbez, Richard Hollis, Martin Jaeggi, Andres Janser, Roxane Jubert, Urs Lehni, Claude Lichtenstein, Kerry William Purcell, François Rappo, Jörg Stürzebecher and Ruedi Widmer. 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design takes a fresh look at Swiss typography and photographics, posters, corporate image design, book design, journalism and typefaces over the past 100 years. With captivating illustrations and illuminating essays by prominent experts in the field, this book, designed by the Zurich studio NORM, presents the diversity of contemporary visual design while also tracing the fine lines of tradition that connect the work of different periods. The changes in generations and paradigms as manifested in their different visual languages, and convictions are organized along a timeline as well as by theme. The various fields of endeavor and media are described, along with how they relate to advertising, art and politics. Graphic design from Switzerland reflects both international trends and local concerns. High conceptual and formal quality, irony and wit are its constant companions. A new, comprehensive reference work on Swiss design.

The Swiss population is called upon to participate actively in political decision-making processes through regular campaigns. These campaigns are often concerned with issues that heat up the emotions and lead to ideological battles. Swiss campaign posters, which have influenced opinion making since the beginning of the 20th century, bear testimony to direct democracy. This special form of political propaganda—prominently associated with Switzerland—is a sensitive indicator of socio-political moods and reflects both national mentalities and global tendencies.Yes! No! Posters for Democracy reveals the visual argumentation strategies and rhetorical approaches that have shaped the Swiss campaign poster from 1918 to the present. Clichéd exaggerations, undifferentiated simplifications, a repertoire of drastic motifs and abridged slo- gans correspond to the laws of the medium, which is oriented towards a manipulative appeal to the masses. Appeals to a sense of unity focus primarily on emotionalization, hardly on rational enlightenment. Subtly condensed messages or a graphically innovative language are hardly to be found in Swiss campaign posters. And yet many renowned designers created works that have inscribed themselves in the collective visual memory of the Swiss population and became icons of Swiss poster design.

Iranian graphic design looks back on a brief history. The first poster designers completed independent artistic training and created painterly-illustrative works in the 1960s. The simultaneous opening to the West under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi promoted global cultural exchange. With the proclamation of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and the First Gulf War (1980–1988), however, this was rapidly interrupted. At the end of the 1980s, a new generation of designers took up the graphic heritage of the pre-war period. At the turn of the millennium, the Iranian poster finally conquered international festivals and caused a great stir in the Western community. The volume Contemporary Iran brings together Iranian cultural posters from 1960 to the present. Despite the many different creative approaches, they always demonstrate the search for a fusion of history and contemporaneity, Iran’s own tradition and Western inspiration, art and everyday culture. An often unorthodox interpretation of Persian cultural heritage is combined with the confident use of computer-generated graphics. Thus, some posters confirm common Western notions of Islamic aesthetics, while others radically undermine them and irritate and surprise us.

Bodies act as powerful signs: Which bodies are represented and how, which gaze determines them, which bodies are not shown or only shown in a particular way and in a particular context? Normative ideas of the body and beauty shape images of the self and the world. They are bodies that manifest inequalities and reflect the prevailing relations of power and violence.Talking Bodies examines mechanisms of representation of the body in medial cultures and illus- trates them exemplarily with posters. Masterpieces of art history that have inscribed themselves in the collective memory are negotiated, as are contemporary self-dramatizations in social media, gender stereotypes, images of black bodies, and the representation of disabled and non-normative bodies. With its focus on the construction and impact of body images, but also on possible strategies of resistance, the publication sees itself as a critical contribution to current debates.With essays by Markus Dederich, Florian Diener, Hans Fässler, Bettina Richter, Maria Schreiber, Marilyn Umurungi, Paula-Irene Villa

Peace appeals, reminders of human rights, calls to protect nature – posters have proven an effective medium in accompanying social and political struggles worldwide since the 1920s. Through the poster, these universal and timeless topics are able to reach a broad public and encourage critical debate. While some posters are meant to shed light and are aimed at reflection, others appeal more strongly to the emotions of their audience. Some dismantle past and present autocrats cynically, ironically or humorously – while others construct idols that exemplify a different world. Dystopian images function as a provocation and warning, while utopian messages keep the belief in change alive. Symbols such as the raised fist or the dove of peace demonstrate their global and lasting power in ever new interpretations. Proven visual formulas and argumentation strategies are taken up in posters of the latest civil protest movements and are supplemented by new rhetoric. The designers, acting individually or collectively, are united by commitment and an emancipatory attitude as well as the conviction that resistance requires its own aesthetic in order to function. The publication brings together works from around one hundred years that demonstrate the tradition of the poster as a medium of protest and assert its validity and necessity in the present day.