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book (design) story #278

fritz kobel:
vererbung und leben

büchergilde gutenberg, zürich, 1947
printer: jacques bollmann ag. zürich
size: 24 x 17 cm
designer: richard paul lohse (jacket)

zürich-based abstract painter and graphic designer richard paul lohse (1902-1988) was one of the most prolific swiss book designers of his time. for the swiss büchergilde gutenberg alone he as involved in the design of arond one hundred books from 1938 through 1954 – often responsible for the entire book design, sometimes only for the dustjacket.

in the 1940s the büchergilde lanched its scientific books series "forschung und leben" (research and life), and lohse designed most of the dustjackets – among them some true highights.

however the covers and inner pages were not designed by lohse but followed a standardised scheme which was rather conventional compared to lohse's modernist dustjackets: the cloth covers ...

... and the title pages used a symmetrical layout.

this book by swiss biologist fritz kobel (1896-1981) is about genetics. lohse's nice photomontage jacket show clover blossoms with coloured segments that seem to visualise the "invisible" genetic data. note the title arrangement on the spine – segment-shaped, too!