wiedler.ch

book (design) story #37

karl gerstner, markus kutter:
die neue graphik

arthur niggli ltd., teufen, 1959
printer: r. weber ag, heiden
size: 23 x 23 cm
designer: karl gerstner

we have come across karl gerstner (1930-2017) and markus kutter (*1925) a few times. this book is a comprehensive overview of what they consider great modern graphic design. its title is almost identical to the leading magazine that propagated the swiss "new new typography" in the late 1950s: "neue grafik", co-edited by richard paul lohse, josef müller-brockmann, hans neuburg and carlo vivarelli.

gerstner demonstrates his trademark design again: square format, brownish card wrappers with a white cloth spine, akzidenz-grotesk titles with lower-case first letters, and ranged-left ragged-right text in a typically "swiss" multicolumn layout in three languages. the book comes in a slipcase with a yellow label advertising its content.

on the spine, the three titles are shortent to the mere initials. the authors' names are linked by a hairline "+"-sign – actually the logo of their advertisement company. the cover is very much in the style of the smaller booklet "kalte kunst" (story 16).

there are many reproductions of great graphic design examples from the 1920s into the 1950s. by the way: the book won a "most beautiful swiss books" award.

the copy below is almost identical, however it was for the english market: note the london distributor's name "alec tiranti" instead of "niggli" on the slipcase.