Lars Muller – författare

Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface. It is simple and clean, and commonly seen in advertising, signage, and literature. The R has a curved leg, and the i and j have square dots. The Q has a straight angled tail, and the counterforms inside the O, Q, and C are oval. It is an all-purpose type design that can deliver practically any message clearly and efficiently. It is one of the most popular typefaces of all time. Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface presents 400 examples of Helvetica in action, selected from two diametrically opposed worlds. Superb applications by renowned designers are juxtaposed with an anonymous collection of ugly, ingenious, charming, and hair-raising samples of its use.

Neue Grafik, the -International Review of graphic design and related subjects, - was initiated by designer Josef Muller-Brockmann and published in eighteen issues between 1958 and 1965 by an editorial collective consisting of him, Richard Paul Lohse, Hans Neuburg und Carlo Vivarelli ( LMNV ). The complete volumes are now available in an excellent facsimile reprint from Lars Muller Publishers. From a historical point of view, Neue Grafik can be seen as a programmatic platform and effective publishing organ of Swiss graphic design, an international authority in its field at the time. Protagonists of the Swiss school and its rigorous Zurich faction lead an essential discourse on the foundations of current communication and constructive design. The influence of this movement cannot be over-stated. The Swiss school, also called -Inter-national Style, - became exemplary for the conceptual approach to corporate design of increasingly globally operating corporations and an influential precursor in the design of individual projects, such as posters, exhibitions, and publications. Neue Grafik is an important point of reference in the recent history of graphic design. After the heights of the digital revolution now follows a renewed concern for matter-of-fact concepts and clear form languages. This explains the interest in the almost fundamentalist stance of the four Zurich-based designers, who were responsible for the content of the magazine.

Shizuko Yoshikawa (born 1934 in Japan, based in Switzerland) was one of the first and few Japanese students at the Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung, known as the postwar “Bauhaus.” She later married the renowned designer Josef Müller-Brockmann (1914–1996), a pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design, and moved to Switzerland, where she became an artist and a member of the second generation of concrete art. Amongst the very few women belonging to this art movement, she takes a special position due to her Japanese origins and education. Her work combines the rational concepts of European modern art with the poetry and ease of the intuitional Japanese Zen tradition.

Although Piet Mondrian was not an active member of the Bauhaus, his name is often mentioned in connection with the art school. Starting with a philosophical foray in which he describes art as a figurative expression of human existence, Mondrian embeds his concept of a New Design in the various forms of artistic expression. He looks into the question of whether there is a prevailing hierarchy between painting and architecture and dares to take a far-reaching look at the future of neoplasticism.This complete English edition appears in original design and with separate commentary.

One hundred years after the founding of Bauhaus, it’s time to revisit bauhaus journal as significant written testimony of this iconic movement of modern art. In this journal, published periodically from 1926 to 1931, the most important voices of the movement are heard: masters of the Bauhaus, among others, Josef Albers, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, and Oskar Schlemmer, as well as Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Gerrit Rietveld and many more.They address the developments in and around the Bauhaus, the methods and focal points of their own teaching, and current projects of students and masters. At the time primarily addressed to the members of the “circle of friends of the bauhaus,” the journal published by Gropius and Moholy-Nagy makes tangible the authentic voice of this mouthpiece of the avant-garde. The facsimile reprint is intended to give new impetus to international discussion and research on the Bauhaus, its theories and designs.The exact replica of all individual issues are accompanied by a commentary booklet including an overview of the content, an English translation of all texts, and a scholarly essay which places the journal in its historical context.

This monograph on the work of Austrian architect Carl Pruscha (born 1936) is divided into the three geographical areas of his life and legacy: the United States, Kathmandu, and Vienna. Following his study of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Pruscha spent the early 1960s attending Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, constantly in search of inspiration and visions, a balance between work and free time, and a desire for freedom and self-determination.An invitation by the UN to go to Nepal in 1964 enabled him to establish himself as a practicing architect. Various construction projects along with the Kathmandu Valley Development and Preservation Project made it possible for him to observe and document, to plan and build. Living within a foreign culture encouraged him to examine roles, status, and privileges in society and investigate the works of Kenzo Tange and Louis Kahn.After returning to Vienna in 1978, he was a professor and later the head of the Academy of Fine Arts. Pruscha’s academic and societal influence brought to light the differences between teaching and practice in architecture and made this activist and bohemian a defining figure in the city.The three chapters are accompanied by photographic portfolios by Iwan Baan and Hertha Hurnaus, numerous project documentations, and a detailed timeline that illustrates the geopolitical, cultural, and technological developments surrounding the life and times of Carl Pruscha.

In 1919, the state art school in Weimar was reopened under the direction of Walter Gropius, with a radical teaching approach and under the new name Bauhaus. Four years passed before the first exhibition took place, which conveyed a new approach to art to the enthusiastic public and carried the school’s ideas all over the world.The catalogue Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar 1919–1923 was published in 1923 to accompany this first public appearance. In this interdisciplinary oeuvre catalogue, the idea and potential of the Bauhaus found their way onto paper for the first time. In addition to numerous project presentations, the theoretical approaches of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Gertrud Grunow convey the teaching methods of the various workshops. Gropius’ preface traces the structure of the State Bauhaus and presents the unique reformation approach that demands and teaches the unity of technology and art. The illustrations from the various workshops also show projects by students whose connection to the Bauhaus is less known.With the original layout by László Moholy-Nagy and the cover designed by Herbert Bayer, the book is an important testimony to that legendary avant-garde movement. This facsimile is supplemented by a commentary that places this publication, rare and long out of print, in a historical context and documents the Bauhaus from its idea to its establishment as a renowned art and design school.The German facsimile is accompanied by the first full English translation of the catalogue, making it accessible to an international audience.

Adolf Meyer was Walter Gropius’s right-hand man, his planner and close confidant. As early as 1910, they jointly created the Fagus Factory, one of the most important modernist buildings. The experimental single-family home “Haus am Horn” was built for the first Bauhaus exhibition, in the summer of 1923 in Weimar. The house was planned by Georg Muche (design) and the architectural department at the Bauhaus. Adolf Meyer and Walter March were responsible for construction management.The book about the project was compiled in the summer of 1924 and became the third volume of the Bauhausbücher. Following an essay by Walter Gropius that supplies information on the “Housing Industry,” Georg Muche presents the design of the model building. Adolf Meyer then describes its technical execution, giving details on the companies involved.

Theo van Doesburg was a jack of all trades: painter, writer, architect, typographer, and art theorist. In this volume of the Bauhausbücher, he attempts to make elementary concepts in the visual arts generally comprehensible. He was addressing the “modern artist” of his day, who had to deal with both shifting social paradigms and a changing understanding of art and art theory. Van Doesburg describes theory as a necessary consequence of creative practice. Artists, he says, “do not write about art but from within art.”

The Bauhaus sought to unite life, craftsmanship, and art under one roof. In this volume, Walter Gropius provides a comprehensive overview of the Bauhaus workshops. He explains the basic principles guiding the teaching, describes contemporary developments in architecture, and illuminates the Bauhaus point of view on household utensils, which was geared toward finding the most suitable form for the respective object. Here, Gropius presents the Bauhaus workshops in Weimar devoted to furniture, metals, textiles, and ceramics, among other subjects.

Otto Neurath’s famous Modern Man in the Making, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1939, captures and describes the state of the world in the 1930s by using text and figurative illustrations. From 1925 onwards, Neurath and his team had worked on a new visual language termed “Isotype” (International System of Typographic Picture Education). At a time that saw the rise of new mass media making hitherto unthinkable amounts of information available, Neurath felt the need for a systematic visualization explaining facts, statistic data and comparative numbers in simple ways. The book can be seen as one of the most influential predecessors of today’s ever-present infographics. Its mission was to analyze the “fundamental trends in the social, political and economic life of humanity.” The topics covered in the book include diverse social issues of the time such as mortality, health, employment, trade, education, mobility, migration and demographics.Modern Man in the Making shows Neurath’s democratic endeavor to make knowledge intelligible and available to all. It is a reminder of graphic art’s ability to inform and create context instead of presenting aesthetic qualities only. The book has inspired generations of designers and led to sometimes peculiar imitations and further developments. This pivotal historical picture-text book is made available again as a reprint of the original publication in the series XX The Century of Print – at a time in which new media force designers ever more so to break down complex data into easily comprehensible depictions.

Mãe Luíza is a borough at the edge of the city of Natal in the northeast of Brazil with approximately 15,000 inhabitants – a favela with all the typical grievances. In the 1980s Padre Sabino Gentili came to Natal from Italy, and settled in Mãe Luíza. He built the fi rst Catholic church in the poor community and in 1984 founded the Centro Sócio with German, Swiss and Brazilian support. In a participatory process in which the community was able to voice its needs and priorities, the Centro initiated communal social infrastructure for education and medical care, and later for sports, culture and community life. After Padre Sabino’s death in 2006 the Ameropa Foundation strengthened its commitment with further investments in the infrastructure, expanding social and educative services and community-building measures. The efforts culminated in the construction of an arena for sporting and communal activities and also a music school, two outstanding buildings and focal points in the neighborhood, designed by Swiss architects: facilities usually absent in the Brazilian peripheries.This richly illustrated volume documents the transformation of Mãe Luíza as an example of how to build community, create citizenship and identity, and promote initiative and participation with timely and punctual investments. Alongside a novel written by the esteemed Brazilian author Paulo Lins, short articles and essays trace the history of Mãe Luíza from the point of view of local activists as well as invited authors from various fi elds.

Designed in 1957, Helvetica quickly became a defi ning emblem of Swiss graphic design and a model for clear, functional communication worldwide. Its balanced, perceived neutral form deliberately resists overt expression – a restraint that has made it both admired and contested, securing its lasting cultural presence. Helvetica Forever traces the typeface’s first fifty years, situating its development alongside other seminal sans serif designs of the twentieth century while examining the forces behind its remarkable global reach. The publication draws on the legacy and archives of Alfred Hoffmann, former director of the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei, where Helvetica was developed in collaboration with Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. From signage and corporate identity to editorial design and ephemeral print, the book reveals the many contexts in which Helvetica has shaped visual culture and demonstrates how a seemingly neutral typeface became one of the most infl uential design tools of the modern era.