wiedler.ch

book (design) story #385

walter rüegg:
fünfzig jahre aluminium menziken 1905-1955

aluminium ag, menziken, 1955
printer: effingerhof ag, brugg
size: 30 x 22 cm
photographer: rené friebel
designer: max caflisch (harry buser)

another company festschrift, this one was issued by the aluminim ag in menziken, switzerland, at the occasion of their 50th anniversary in 1955.

the aluminium-coloured company logo on the blue cloth cover was designed by anton stankowski – it is featured in book 88.

the metallic theme carries on to the end papers designed by harry buser (*1928), with silvery drawings of machinery.

the book was designed by renowned swiss typographer max caflisch (1916-2004).

by the late 1930s, caflisch had worked as a typographer with the benno schwabe and later birkäuser companies in basel, when jan tschichold also designed books for them.

in the 1940s he worked for benteli in bern, and by the 1960s became a teacher for typography at the zürich school for design.

caflisch's layout sports assymmetrically arranged titles, but – like tschichold in his later years – he preferred to use an elegant garamond instead of akzidenz-grotesk which was the dominant "swiss" typeface at the time, especially in industry-related publications like this.

the photographs by rené friebel are in the "objective" tradition of hans finsler.