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book (design) story #530

august müller:
schweizer graphische mitteilungen

august müller, st. gallen, 1932
printer: buchdruckerei zollikofer & co., st. gallen
size: 32 x 23 cm
designer: werner weiskönig (inserts)

here we have three isssues of "schweizer graphische mitteilungen" (sgm), the swiss typographer's trade magazine. the two issues on the left are from 1932, sporting a rather traditional standardised cover design. the figure 50 refers to the magazine's anniversary. august müller (1861-1936) had been its editor and publisher since 1884! the 1933 issue on the right has a modernist cover ...

... with erbar-grotesk and a "typofoto" referring to "grafa", a swiss trade fair for the graphic industries.

in the mid-1920s, the sgm was rather critical of the "new typography" which they dubbed the "russian revolutionary style": this prompted tschichold's remarks in his seminal 1928 book, that the new typography was now widely accepted "with the sole exception of the 'schweizerische graphische mitteilungen' still stubbornly sticking to the beaten track" (page 64).

as we can see, by the ealy 1930s also the sgm had adopted the "russian revolution" to some degree ...

above examples designed by werner weiskönig (1907-1982, a graphic designer and artist based in st. gallen (maybe the uncredited "grafa" cover is also by him). below a laid-in flyer for an automatic press, printed by the offizin haag-drugulin, leipzig.