45 Designers// Modernism

Couldn't have put it better myself:  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 Kunstgewerbeschule. He began his career as an apprentice to the designer and advertising consultant Walter Diggelman before, in 1936, establishing his own Zurich studio specialising in graphics, exhibition design and photography.   By the 1950s he was established as the leading practitioner and theorist of Swiss Style, which sought a universal graphic expression through a grid-based design purged of extraneous illustration and subjective feeling. http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=51&fid=163

The International Style

In Switzerland, just after World War II, elements of Futurism, Constructivism and the Bauhaus were distilled into a utopian system of grids, sans serif type and neutrality known as the International Style. The visual system was based upon the belief that the typography should be totally clear allowing no distraction from the content.

This visual order had no links to historical traditions and eschewed any references to culture or geography. Its adaptability to any place and application — architecture, furniture, product and graphic design—allowed it to become a world-wide style, or international style.Below: Modernism must be on everything!--a wine label by Massimo Vignelli http://www.designhistory.org/Post_mod.html

We know Paul Rand through the stunning advertising, editorial, publishing, institutional, identity, corporate and intellectual legacy he left behind. A major figure at the epicenter of 20th-century design, his impact on modern communication practice and theory was unparalleled. For him, modernism was a way of life and a form of belief, not a style.  http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Rand-Modernist-Derek-Birdsall/dp/1890761036

Armin Hoffman (HonRDI) is a Swiss graphic designer. Hofmann followed Emil Ruder as head of the graphic design department at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design) and was instrumental in developing the graphic design style known as the Swiss Style.  He is well known for his posters, which emphasized economical use of colour and fonts, in reaction to what Hofmann regarded as the "trivialization of colour." His posters have been widely exhibited as works of art in major galleries, such as the New YorkMuseum of Modern Art. - Wikipedia

Adrian Frutiger He has received several awards and honours: 1986, the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Mainz (Germany); 1987, Medal of the Type Directors Club of New York; 1993, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Paris); 1993, Grand Prix National des Arts Graphiques (France).  http://www.identifont.com/show?110