Swiss Style Design

Swiss style’s rationalism and structure offered great functionality; however it limited designer’s creativity prompting a highly expressionist movement known as post-modernism. These drastic changes in design can be examined based on their technical, aesthetic, and sociopolitical impacts.
Swiss style design can be characterized by its heavy use of grids, sans serif type and cold compositions. This style is best known for its ability to convey complex information in an easy to understand manner. It developed in order to offer complete functionality, Swiss style does not draw attention to itself, however places the most importance on the information itself.
The technical feats of Swiss style that are still referenced to today are defined …show more content…
Paula Scher and Steven Heller’s the complete genealogy of graphic design; is a celebrated example of the defiance post-modernists had towards Swiss-style. It does make use of similar elements of the previously mentioned design; however it uses them in a much different way. In Geigy Heute, spread from book Arrows are used to guide a user through the piece, and are used to avoid any confusion. However in contrast, Arrows here do nothing but cause more confusion for the viewer. Multiple types of arrows are used, multiple colors, Arrows are pointing in every direction and fail to lead the viewer through any logical steps. At first glance it does appear to be informational but to the viewer’s dismay it is completely lacking in this. This piece was designed to parody another genealogical chart, questioning the level of authority and the quality of information in the piece. Disregarding the actual chart in the piece, we do see use of grids and typesetting. All elements are aligned to a defined margin, the title, although loud follows a system and the snippet of text are aligned in a rational