International Poster Gallery

Muller-Brockmann, Josef
Musica Viva - January 7, 1958, 1958

Josef Mueller-Brockmann abruptly rose to prominence in the early 1950s with the appearance of his highly abstract series of concert posters in Zurich. The series would continue over the next two decades, and propel him into the forefront of a new design movement called the International Typographic Style, along with Armin Hofmann of Basel. The new style replaced drawn illustration with a mathematical grid that echoed the rational structure of modern architecture.The color palette was reduced to its most elemental - black and white - or at other times to one or two colors, and also replaced traditional typefaces with clean and straightforward sans-serif faces (generally Helvetica). The result was extremely legible and utterly logical.

Muller-Brockmann's work, like Hofmann's, became widely synonymous with the "look" of many Swiss cultural institutions, which used posters as advertising vehicles. An implacable advocate of the new style, he wrote extensively on posters and was the inspiration for the magazine "New Graphic Design" which would spread the style's message throughout the world. Its wide impact continues to this day.