Fahrgastinformationssystem
Passenger Information System

Gestaltungshandbuch für die Schweizerischen Bundesbahnen / Design Manual for the Swiss Federal Railways

In 1980 Josef Müller-Brockmann laid the cornerstone for a uniform visual identity for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) with his legendary Visual Information System at Train Stations and Stops. In view of Switzerland’s multilingualism, the manual proposed a signage system that largely did without language; with his functional typography, the pioneer of Swiss graphic design conceived an intuitively comprehensible signage system for use throughout the country to also guide passengers unfamiliar with the terrain to their destination with the help of pictograms. The visual concept was developed in dialogue with the SBB and still dominates the railways’ visual identity even today.

Müller-Brockmann’s manual, greatly expanded in 1992 and given the title Passenger Information System, is a prime example of a complex design project that succeeds through extreme rationality and consistency. It thus serves as a compass for designers worldwide in their daily work. 

This reprint with a complete English translation makes the manual accessible for the first time to a broader public. Andres Janser examines the project in the context of Müller-Brockmann’s conceptual work and the systematic international design for which railways everywhere were striving during the period.

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Modernist aesthetics in architecture, art, and product design are familiar to many. In soaring glass structures or minimalist canvases, we recognize a time of vast technological advance which affirmed the power of human beings to reshape their environment and to break, radically, from the conventions or constraints of the past. Less well-known, but no less fascinating, is the distillation of modernism in graphic design.

This unprecedented TASCHEN publication, authored by Jens Müller, brings together approximately 6,000 trademarks, focused on the period 1940–1980, to examine how modernist attitudes and imperatives gave birth to corporate identity. Ranging from media outfits to retail giants, airlines to art galleries, the sweeping survey is organized into three design-orientated chapters: Geometric, Effect, and Typographic. Each chapter is then sub-divided into form and style led sections such as alphabet, overlay, dots and squares.

Alongside the comprehensive catalog, the book features an introduction from Jens Müller on the history of logos, and an essay by R. Roger Remington on modernism and graphic design. Eight designer profiles and eight instructive case studies are also included, with a detailed look at the life and work of such luminaries as Paul Rand, Yusaku Kamekura, and Anton Stankowski, and at such significant projects as Fiat, The Daiei Inc., and the Mexico Olympic Games of 1968. An unrivaled resource for graphic designers, advertisers, and branding specialists, Logo Modernism is equally fascinating to anyone interested in social, cultural, and corporate history, and in the sheer persuasive power of image and form.

The author 

Jens Müller was born in Koblenz, Germany, in 1982 and studied graphic design. Recipient of numerous national and international design awards, Müller is Creative Director of vista design studio in Düsseldorf, editor of the A5 book series on graphic design history, and author of Logo Modernism. He is a visiting lecturer at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf and at the design department of the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. 

The contributing author 

R. Roger Remington is Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. He has lectured and written extensively on the history of graphic design, including Nine Pioneers in American Graphic Design and Design and Science: The Life and Work of Will Burtin and has been reocgnized by the RIT Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching and the Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship in Graphic Design.

Logo Modernism

Jens Müller, R. Roger Remington

Hardcover, 24.6 x 37.2 cm, 432 pages
Multilingual Edition: English, French, German

Creative people are often known to seek inspiration from nature. Besides providing the setting for ideation and imagination, it is a canvas full of complex shapes and lines interwoven with each other, countless varieties of colour palettes, as well as diverse tones and textures that set distinct moods and atmospheres.

Flora & Fauna explores the ways with which these timeless elements have been re-interpreted and incorporated into modern branding and design work. Spanning a wide range of project types such as logos, icons, packaging and print ads, it showcases a world of creativity as diverse as nature itself.

Editor: Victionary
Specs: 190 x 255 mm, 256 pp
Format: full colour, softcover with jacket
Release date: October 2018
Language: English

New Retro : Graphics & Logo in Retro Style

Designers often look to earlier decades or generations for inspiration, borrowing motifs and palettes that are recognizable through their ability to elicit nostalgia.

LOS LOGOS 8

DELVE INTO THE WORLD OF LOGO DESIGN

Los Logos 8, the classic compilation and thoughtfully curated showcase of current developments in logo design, delves into the realm of an ever-evolving and always present branding component.