Josef Müller-Brockmann: the father of the grid system in graphic design — Möels & Co

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Josef Müller-Brockmann: the father of the grid system in graphic design

1 Aug

Written By Betina Menescal

World-renowned graphic designer Josef Müller-Brockmann was a pioneer of Swiss graphic design in the 1950s and 1960s and his Constructivist and Functionalist principles continue to influence the discipline internationally to this day. After an impressive early career as a graphic designer, he made a radical turn towards contemporary modern design in the early 1950s. He owes his great reputation to his tireless activity in communicating his convictions and to his straightforward and warmly human nature. His work has been recognized through the most important national and international awards.<br>Müller-Brockmann married artist Shizuko Yoshikawa in 1967. After 1976 they lived in a spacious modern studio house in Unterengstringen near Zurich, where he died in 1996. Josef Müller was born in 1914 in Rapperswil, Canton St. Gallen, about 40 kilometers from Zurich. After completing the mandatory school program, he began an apprenticeship as a graphic artist, which he abandoned after two unsatisfactory years. The talented draughtsman endeavored to become established as an independent designer and attended classes at the Zurich School of Applied Arts taught by Alfred Willimann and Ernst Keller, two respected and influential graphic artists of the time.<br>He managed to make ends meet with small commissions and continued studying as an autodidact, attending lectures at universities and developing his drawing skills. When he was twenty he moved into his first studio and attracted attention for the shop window decorations and large murals he created, which in 1939 led to a major commission for the Swiss National Exhibition. He planned to use his savings to study for a year with Fernand Léger in Paris. That project was thwarted by the outbreak of war and Müller spent most of the time until 1945 in uniform as an officer in the Swiss army.<br>In 1943 he married violinist Verena Brockmann (19XX–1964) and henceforth went by the name Müller-Brockmann. The couple had one son, Andreas (1944–1992). After the war, his career took off; Müller-Brockmann, much in demand as a graphic artist with strong drawing skills, was entrusted with large-scale projects. He designed exhibitions for Helmhaus in Zurich and for trade fairs at home and abroad. He also made a name for himself as a stage and costume designer, working on performances in Zurich, Munich and Copenhagen. Success finally arrived in 1949 and was also reflected in commercial commissions, as well as the first requests to design music and theatre posters. For all his successes, Müller-Brockmann doubted his artistic talent and harbored doubts about the contemporary significance of his illustrative graphics.<br>THE DAWN OF MODERNITY<br>Müller-Brockmann’s encounter with Ladislav Sutnar in Prague in 1948 and his engagement with Karel Teige’s oeuvre, the Bauhaus and in particular Moholy-Nagy’s typography were all significant influences, as was his involvement with Jan Tschichold and the New Typography. In the early 1950s he turned to modernism and in the space of just a few years produced a body of design work that anticipated the principles of his later globally influential design theory. In 1950 he began to create his first posters for the Tonhalle Zurich, deploying abstract figures and typographic compositions that were soon replaced by geometric figures and color compositions in the spirit of Concrete Art.<br>Müller-Brockmann’s designs, his creative energy and his studio’s prolific output coincided with a general modernist awakening in Protestant Zurich that led many graphic artists to follow his example and contributed to the flourishing of Constructivist and Functionalist graphic work. In addition, photography-based graphic design grew more popular and Müller-Brockmann was one of the most versatile proponents of this style. In 1953 he won a poster competition organized by the Automobile Club of Switzerland. Incorporating a montage of photographs by Ernst A. Heiniger, the impact of the poster “Schützt das Kind” (Protect the Child!) stems from the dramatic relationship between the speeding motorcycle and the defenseless running boy.<br>Shortly after this, Heiniger followed Walt Disney’s invitation and headed to Los Angeles, rising to fame in the United States as a documentary filmmaker. Müller-Brockmann took over Heiniger’s studio and continued to employ the latter’s collaborator, Serge Libiszewski, a young experimental photographer. Photography became an essential means of expression in the studio’s work. Müller-Brockmann experimented with light painting and abstract photograms while working on various design commissions. The studio developed an independent form of object photography. Swiss industrial companies and service providers drew on the studio’s services and...