Poster A1 Kunstgewerbemuseum by Michelle Hartmann

The view chosen by Michelle Hartmann and the Designers` Club für Fabrikat shows what is now the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich. In 1933, the museum (then still called the `Kunstgewerbemuseum`) opened its main building on Ausstellungstrasse in Zurich. The architects Adolf Steger and Karl Elender created a simple structure in the spirit of the New Building movement but planned eye-catching exterior lettering for the building. Ernst Keller only drew the necessary symbols at the time – so for this poster we set ourselves the task of reconstructing all the characters using the existing exterior and interior lettering. The strong red combined with the dark brown, along with the three incorporated posters by Max Bill and El Lissitzky in the background, brings the Bauhaus era back to life. Two people who were particularly important for the Bauhaus era in Zurich were the Swiss Johannes Itten and Hans Finsler, who established the first photography class in Switzerland, from which numerous famous photographers emerged. Thanks to Itten and Finsler, modernism was brought to Zurich and Switzerland. The four-color screen print was done by Chris Hartin, Zurich.