Josef Müller-Brockmann

Josef Müller-Brockmann was born in Rapperswil, Switzerland in 1914 and studied architecture, design and history of art at the University of Zurich and at the city's Kunstegewerbeschule (the school of arts and crafts). He led the international typographic style, also Swiss design, which was characterized by the sans serif type face and precisely aligned layouts and reductive style.

In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio where he specialized in graphic and exibition design and photography. He then went on to produce concert posters. His 1951 series of concert posters were a definitive statement of his style. Very geometric, unemotional, and abstracted. And more than 30 years after he opened his studio, he founded "New Graphic Design," which spread the principals of the Swiss design ethic internationally. He also authored the books "History of Visual Communications" and "History of the Poster".