Swiss Graphic Design Histories, 4 volumes, edited by Davide Fornari, Robert Lzicar, Sarah Owens, Michael Renner, Arne Scheuermann, Peter J. Schneemann, Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich 2021.

Swiss Graphic Design Histories offers an entirely new redefinition of Switzerland’s graphic design landscape. Based on extensive research by scholars of design history and with a multiple and inclusive approach, it reaches beyond the usual canon and the well-known epicentres Basel and Zurich with the Germanophone fathers of what has become famous as the Swiss Style in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
In three volumes it features visual artefacts and archival documents, the majority published here for the first time, alongside likewise previously unpublished conversations with designers who have forged developments of the past decades, as well as new essays discussing key terms that refer to various design practices. The complexity of the undertaking is embraced through a system of keywords, thus enabling readers to connect contents within the individual volumes. A fourth volume comprising a glossary, bibliography, and an index of the keywords rounds out this long-awaited new survey of graphic design in multi-lingual Switzerland that sheds new light at networks, practices and media largely ignored so far.

Completely available in Open Access, under a CC BY NC ND 4.0 license.

Contributors
Chiara Barbieri, Rudolf Barmettler, Jonas Berthod, Sandra Bischler, Constance Delamadeleine, Davide Fornari, Roland Früh, Ueli Kaufmann, Sarah Klein, Robert Lzicar, Jonas Niedermann, Sarah Owens, Michael Renner, Peter J. Schneemann, Arne Scheuermann, Sara Zeller.

Graphic Design
Simone Farner and Naima Schalcher

Format
17×24 cm, 688 pages, 4 volumes in slipcase

Book Presentations
1st July 2021, 6PM, Hochschule der Künste, Bern
3 September 2021, 3PM, Design History Society Annual Conference, Basel