wiedler.ch

book (design) story #204

rené wehrli:
futurismo & pittura metafisica

kunsthaus zürich, 1950
printer: buchdruckerei neue zürcher zeitung, zürich
size: 21 x 15 cm
designer: max bill

max bill (1908-1994) designed this catalogue for an exhibition of italian futurist and "metaphysical" art at the kunsthaus zürich. typical again the vertical list of names on the cover (see story 203). interestingly, bill uses a classical garamond typeface. a nice poetic detail: note the ampersand character floating on the left – this calligraphic example reveals that the ampersand character is derived from the latin "et" (and).

the bright orange cover is contrasted by text pages on rough brown paper – brown being a colour often associated with painters of the "pittura metafisica" movement such as carlo carrà and giorgio de chirico. the unindented paragraphs are separated by diamond-shaped dots.

the plates (below a typical example of futurist typography) are printed on white coated paper, contrasting the text pages – a design max bill used in other books, too (see story 154).