book (design) story #735
hans rudolf schmid:
der kleine schweizer führer
schweizerische verkehrszentrale, zürich, 1935
size: 18 x 12 cm
designer: herbert matter, paul renner
we came across these swiss tourist office brochures from the 1930s before – in story 564 and 565.
as pointed out there, paul renner (1878-1956) was involved in the typographic concept of this series.
what we have here is one of the first, "original" examples, ...
... with stunning three-color photomontage covers designed by herbert matter (1907-1984). the text was written by swiss historian and author hans rudolf schmid (1902-??).
below a comparison of the 1935 version of this "short guide to switzerland" in german language and a later english version, ...
... with a new photo (of the eiger mountain) on the front and matter's back cover, however with colours reduced to black and white. ...
we can only speculate why matter's innovative coloured version was dropped after he left switzerland in 1935 ... maybe too experimental? maybe too difficult to emulate by other artists? and maybe the original front photo of a swiss "landsgemeinde" voting with raised hands was considered as too politically charged ...?
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