Max Bill, former Bauhaus student and a pioneer of the Swiss style, based his methodology on Constructivism. His colleague Josef Müller-Brockman describes the process: “Copy and a pictures are arranged and related in accordance with objective and functional criteria, and due attention is paid to the rules of typography.” After the war, Bill’s rationalist design ethic spread throughout Europe. The International Style was further elaborated by younger designers, from schools in Zurich (Brockmann) and Basel (Armin Hofmann), who saw design as a vital means of communicating objective facts. Object photography, sans-serif typography, lack of ornamentation, and strict composition on the basis of the grid system are characteristic of this style. Communication, not seduction, was a primary goal, one that dictated the need for symbols approproate to the content of the message. The methods aimed for a message with universal appeal. Other names: Fritz Gottscholk, Emil Ruder

The Swiss style (Neue Graphik) was adopted in America as the backbone of corporate communications design. The simple, clear, direct graphic elements of Swiss design lent themselves well to American trademarks and logotypes, which functioned as comprehensive visual systems within an organization. The aesthetic and commercial effect was achieved (by designers like Paul Rand) through visual discipline and a clear choice of limited graphic means, which led to the international recognition of US businesses.

The International Style also manifested itself in European and American architecture. Running along similar lines to Bauhaus architecture, many designers created bare, utilitarian, highly rationalized buildings, emphasizing their pure, neat, hygienic qualities and repeating them. The emphasis on standardization, mass-production, and new materials in architecture became part of an ideal of social utopia, in which the majority would be able to enjoy a healthy and improved quality of life. Many of these projects involved the extreme control of the architect, and grew into large-scale planned communities.

Important architects (both American and European) include: LeCorbusier, JJP Oud, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinan, Buckminster Fuller, William van Alen

Quotes by Wright

Adapted from: Graphic Style: From Victorian to Post-Modern.
Chwast, Seymour/Heller, Steven. Harry N Abrams, Inc., 1988.