Graphic design began with written language and over the centuries evolved into a significant element of communication. Using words and pictures to present ideas visually is a creative as well as a technological process. Historically cultures have presented visual communication in their own styles, reflecting the socio-cultural influences of each and impacting how the graphic designer will solve a particular design problem. Josef Muller-Brockman, a seminal figure in the Swiss design movement of the mid-20th Century, developed a clear, objective, orderly style and design philosophy that made him a theorist as well as a practitioner of graphic design. Rather than employing a style that would reflect only his specific culture, Muller-Brockman sought a universal language, although the strict order of his style may be attributed to traits particular to the Swiss.
He insisted on ôan absolute and universal graphic expression through an objective and impersonal presentation, communicating to the audience without the inference of the designerÆs subjective feelings or propagandist techniques of persuasion. A measure of his success can be gauged by observing the visual power and impact of his workö (International Typographic Style).
Born in Switzerland in 1914, during his long career Muller-Brockman was a graphic designer, photographer, sculptor, theatrical set designer, illustrator, advertising agency owner, author, teacher, international lecturer and consultant After completion of secondary school, he was apprentices to a graphic designer in Zurich but left to study architecture, design and art history at the University. He worked as a freelance designer and illustrator, and opened his own studio. By 1950 he began to move away from illustration to objective-constructive design. His concepts can be clearly observed in the posters he produced from 1951 on in which he used images as neutral symbols and employed a typographical g...