wiedler.ch

book (design) story #85

markus kutter:
wer ist die national-zeitung?

gerstner+kutter / national-zeitung, basel, 1960
printer: national-zeitung, basel
size: 21 x 21 cm
designer: marcel wyss

we don't need to check the impressum to know that this brochure is related to karl gerstner – his style is all there: square format, brownish card wrappers, akzidenz-grotesk typeface, ...

... asymmetric page layout, and sections on different coloured paper – very much like story 83.

the brochure was conceived by the advertising agency gerstner+kutter; it is basically a reader survey of the "national-zeitung", a basel newspaper. the survey was conceived by otto angehrn (1916-1992), a professor for market research.

but in the impressum we learn that the art director is actually marcel wyss (*1930).

wyss is a bern-based artist and graphic designer who is best known as the editor and designer of "spirale", an important swiss magazine for avant-garde art and poetry, founded in 1953 by marcel wyss and dieter roth, with eugen gomringer as co-editor (for a history of the "spirale" magazine: isbn 3906700216).

the way wyss used photos to symbolise the readers' professions (hats), communication tools (punch card, telephone), holiday preferences (thermometers), and smoking habits (ash tray) is just great.

in 1955 the "spirale" magazine had changed to a square format and often sported sections on different coloured paper.

"spirale" number 5 (1955) showed art by karl gerstner, and gerstner contributed to all the numbers that followed. gerstner's legendary book "kalte kunst" (see story 16) is closely related to the "spirale" – it includes some analytical texts that gerstner wrote for the magazine and also features a painting by marcel wyss.