wiedler.ch

book (design) story #563

(unknown) :
sport in switzerland

swiss national tourist office, zurich, around 1935
printer: fretz bros. ltd., zurich
size: 18 x 12 cm
photographer: meerkämper, steiner, steiner-heiniger, tuggener
designer: paul renner

after the nazis suspended meisterschule director paul renner (1878-1956) in 1933 because of his courageous publication "kulturbolschewismus", he was invited by the swiss tourist board to work on the typography of a new series of tourist brochures, so renner spent most of 1933 and 1934 in bern and zürich.

renner's design concept was used for a series of brochures which were published in different languages.

renner reproduced some spreads from the german version of this booklet about sport in switzerland in his 1939 typography book, ...

... with the caption stating "photo selection, design and typography by p. renner" – ...

... while the related brochure of our next story was commented "photomontages and design by matter".

this copy seems to be from an an adapted edition of a later year ...

... since it mentions the 1939 landesausstellung (swiss national exhibtion).

among the photographers credited in the booklet are familiar names such as (emil) meerkämper, (albert) steiner, (heiri) steiner, (ernst a.) heiniger and (jakob) tuggener.

the design of this back cover (below) is remarkable, it looks actually rather like herbert matter's style. i am pretty sure matter was involved in the standardised cover design concept of the series.

here we have a couple of different booklets from that series, ...

... all sharing the same visual identity with red slanted titles and swiss flag, ...

... however they were actually produced by different graphic designers (and different printers): ...

... while many are not credited, some are – ...

... see also stories 564, 565 and 566.