book (design) story #492
paul guggenbühl:
unsere einheimischen nutzhölzer
verlag stocker-schmid, dietikon-zürich, 1962
printer: walter-verlag ag, olten
size: 28 x 29 cm
designer: peter andermatt
housed in a slipcase, this heavy book shows all the ingredients of modernist swiss style typography: square format, ...
... asymmetric akzidenz-grotesk titles in a single size on jacket, cover ...
... and also inside the book.
it is a book about domestic timbers written by paul guggenbühl (1909-1978), a joiner and interior designer who taught at the gewerbeschule zürich.
an amazing feature are tipped-in pieces of real wood. no wonder the book is so heavy!
the book design is credited to the studio of josef müller-brockmann (1914-1996), so not surprisingly we see a typical multi-column, grid-based layout with sans-serif type.
the book won a most beautiful swiss books of 1962 award; it is mentioned in the documentation "beauty and the book" (isbn 3721205405) where the design is credited to "atelier j. müller-brockmann, peter andermatt". peter andermatt (1938-2005) joined müller-brockmann's studio in 1960 and worked there for 14 years.
the strips of wood also conform to the grid! their thickness required a special binding design.
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