How it Works: Swiss Design in Brazil
Who really inspired the movement? Can we even know?
Design students are asked to examine and contemplate the great movements (like Cubism!) and their famous originators (Pablo!) as they pursue their studies. But the origins of the design, and their messy influence aren’t completely honored in today’s textbooks.
Today, we examine how Swiss Design traveled to Brazil to illustrate something all designers ask themselves every day:
Where did this really come from?
What’s Swiss Design?
Swiss Design or International Typographic Style was popularized in the 1950s but its technical rules were already in practice as early as the 1920s.
The style emerged after WWII when international trade increased and relations between countries grew stronger. It was often the case that designs had to accommodate multiple languages and be printed cheap and fast.
It was more than a mere style. It was a set of modern revolutionary ideals, beliefs, and principles for professional practice — the intent for a better world through socially responsible design that was purposeful and functional.
The core qualities of Swiss Design include:
- Asymmetric layouts
- Grid-based design
- Use of sans-serif fonts (Helvetica, Akzidenz Grotesk)
- Text aligned flush left, ragged right
- Use of photography, rather than illustration
Pioneers of the movement included Ernst Keller, Max Bill, Jan Tschichold, and Max Huber. They were succeeded by Armin Hofmann and Josef Müller-Brockmann, along with many other ones, who are credited with popularizing the movement. Some other significant individuals who succeeded in what came to be Swiss design were Emil Ruder and Karl Gerstner.
Hofmann taught at a school in Basel while Müller-Brockmann taught at a school in Zürich. Two birds of a feather, but not so sure they would flock together.
Hofmann was known for his relatively unorthodox teaching methods and design skills. He focused on explorations of fundamental graphic forms: dot, line, and shape. His famous book was the “Graphic Design Manual” (1965).
Müller-Brockmann, on the other hand, followed more rigid mathematical rules and subjective graphic representations. His popular book was “Grid Systems” (1981).
How did Swiss Design travel to Brazil?
In 1953, Max Bill (one of the pioneers of the movement), director of the Ulm School of Design, visited Brazil’s Biennial exhibitions in São Paulo where he met Geraldo de Barros and Alexandre Wollner, two Brazilian graphic designers.
Bill then invited them to attend the Ulm, where their design craft was perfected and (no doubt) influenced by the International Typographic Style. Bill’s visit eventually led to the launch of the Instituto de Arte Contemporâneo (IAC), the first design school in Latin America.
In Brazil, the label “graphic design” was not used to describe visual communication at the time. Instead, people who created this type of design were described as artists, and most of them being “concrete artists.”
Concrete Art was a movement with a strong emphasis on geometric abstraction and universality. The graphic design practice among concrete artists evolved regionally, and two distinct groups emerged, just like in Switzerland.
Concrete Art (Brazilian “graphic design”) was a movement with a strong emphasis on geometric abstraction and universality. The graphic design practice among concrete artists evolved regionally, and two distinct groups emerged, just like in Switzerland.
Brazilian design archives don’t even mention “International Typographic Style” or “Swiss Design” although they do make use of the core qualities. Instead, it’s referred to as Modernist language.
So the Brazilians got it from the Swiss. But what influenced the Swiss?
What are the (widely-accepted) origins of Swiss Design?
We know several artistic movements had a big influence on Swiss Design, many of which are taught in school. For example:
- De Stijl, Netherlands: Pure abstraction, formal and color reductions, and simplified compositions to vertical and horizontal.
- Suprematism, Russia: Subjective abstract art, focused only on simple geometric shapes and color, with no direct real-world connection.
- Constructivism, Russia: Use of geometric forms composed in harmonious order, photomontage and typography manipulation.
- Concrete Art, Netherlands: Geometric abstraction art with no figurative or symbolic references. First coined by the Dutch, but first published in a French publication.
- Neue Typographie, Germany: Clear effect over Swiss design. Asymmetric compositions, intentional use of white space, and sans serif typefaces.
- Bauhaus, Germany: Direct influence on Swiss design. Effectiveness of form follows function and simplicity of less is more.
It seems we should probably update the timeline.
Ok, then what are the less widely-accepted origins?
If we really want to talk about Swiss Design inspiration, we must give a bit of credit to the influences found outside our textbooks. For example:
1. The Asurini people
The Asurini people of Brazil were applying principles of geometric abstraction in their body art 150 years before the movement was named by the Swiss.
The Asurini people, who lived in the region between the Xingu and Bacajá rivers in Brazil, and their artistry in ceramics, body painting, and ornamentation became known after contact with their tribes in the 1970s.
Their visual language are primarily symmetrical, and their significance is connected to cosmology and has a profound reflection of their tribes. Each part of the body has its own type of drawing that differentiates between sex and age. Their motifs are divided by three groups:
1. Nature Subject
- AJUAWUIAKI: Tree Branches
- EIREMA’YWA: Honeycomb
- AWATIPUTYRA: Corn Cob
- KUMANA: Kidney Bean
- JAWARAJURYNA: Jaguar’s Neck
- YWRYWAAKA: Caterpillar Painting
2. Human Figure Subject (Used for Rituals)
- TAYNGAVA: Anthropomorphic Doll
- TAYNGAVAJUWAJARAKA and KAPUYWA: Painting without Butt Area/Tree Branch
- TAYNGAJUPUPE: Figure from within the Thorn
- TAYNGAJUVAPYKA: Muakara Shoulder Painting
- TAYNGAJUWA’AWA: Face to Face Painting
3. Material Culture Subject
- TAMAKYJUAKA: Leg Painting
- JUAKETÉ: True Painting
- Á’EAKYNGA: Ja’e Painting (Pot Special)
Lygia Pape, a Brazilian Neo-concrete artist, and graphic designer during the 60s, often mentioned how much these native Brazilian indigenous graphics were such an inspiration for her body of work.
Although she valued rationality and abstraction, she had an innate desire for more expressive sensibility and playfulness, and (like the Asurini people), wanted to use geometry to express language.
The difference was that one was commercialized and called “graphic design.”
Although Lygia Pape valued rationality and abstraction, she had an innate desire for more expressive sensibility and playfulness, and (like the Asurini people), wanted to use geometry to express language. The difference was that one was commercialized and called “graphic design.”
2. The Golden Ratio
Although Fibonacci is credited with inventing the “Golden Ratio” in 1202–a commonly-found shape in nature that can create natural-looking compositions that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye–many sources claim differently.
In African architecture it is common to see fractal grids. The Kotoko people, whose existence dates back to the 15th century, used clay to build rectangular buildings complexes, that were constantly subdivided by the same shape, which is–surprise!–very close to a golden spiral.
Plus, a portion of the Fibonacci sequence was also found in a woven Kente cloth in Ghana, and we know the practice of weaving existed in there well before the 11th century.
“The Elements of Typographic Style” (one of the most recognized books on graphic design) even admits that Fibonacci studied in North Africa (and we can guess he came home with some new influences).
There’s also proof that Indian mathematicians knew about the Fibonacci sequence as early as the sixth century, and that Indian prosodists were led to the sequence while studying musical rhythms.
Plus, graphic design scholars argue the Greek architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollo deserves the credit for discovering the golden rectangle ratio during the construction of the Parthenon (although later this belief was debunked by Dr. Audrey G. Bennett).
Alas, regardless of the origins, it’s Fibonacci’s name that gets the credit.
Looks like we need to update the timeline once more.
So, where does that leave us?
“History is written by the victors.” — Winston Churchill
The winners write the history books. And origins are hard to pinpoint. Our truths (especially in design) are not universal. As we continue to evolve and grow how we give attribution to creators, we have to question the stories we are taught.
The winners write the history books. And origins are hard to pinpoint. Our truths (especially in design) are not universal. As we continue to evolve and grow how we give attribution to creators, we have to question the stories we are taught.
We are all influenced by decades (and centuries) of work. We are amalgamations of ancestors and we would do well to honor the art they made so that we could make ours.
B.
Thank you, Audrey G. Bennett, for publishing the article on the African Roots of Swiss Design. It sparked my drive to explore and question what I have been told.
We regularly host “How it Works” discussions on topics ranging from Brand Experience to Taylor Swift. Want to join the next one (or teach us how something works)? Reach out! hello@coalesce.nyc
