wiedler.ch

book (design) story #209

arnold rüdlinger:
10 zürcher maler

kunsthalle basel, 1956
printer: benno schwabe & co., basel
size: 21 x 17 cm
designer: emil ruder

lets stay with the "basel school" of swiss graphic design for a few stories. in 1956 the kunsthalle basel showed an exhibition of 10 modern painters from zürich. the catalogue was designed by emil ruder (1914-1970) – see stories 142 and 56 (the latter co-designed with armin hofmann, the other founding father of the "basel school").

the large number "10" and hand-drawn sans-serif letters form a pattern of contrasting geometric shapes, note how the are touching each other – very "basel" in style. the small "e" above the "u" replacing umlaut dots in the word "zürcher" is an old-fashioned style sometimes used by max bill, too (see story 19).

ruder is not credited in the impressum, but he is known as the designer of the very similar exhibition poster. the poster is reproduced in the catalogue of the great exhibition "suiza constructiva", madrid 2003 (isbn 8480261889, page 216).

sans-serif rules, as usual.

among the 10 painters are also "concrete"-"cinstructive artists such as camille graeser (see illustration below), leo leuppi, and richard paul lohse.