Poster Collection 30

Self-Promotion, the 30th edition of the Poster Collection series, features a compilation of posters the Museum fur Gestaltung in Zurich has commissioned over the years to promote their own exhibitions. Most of them were designed by Swiss designers, though there are some exceptions by international artists, giving the collection a global profile.

Ever since the 1910s, Zurich's Kunstgewerbemuseum – which was founded in 1875 and is known today as the Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich – has been focusing on producing high-quality posters. They serve to project the museum's visual identity into the public space while at the same time documenting the variety of themes represented. The posters' high recognition factor is achieved not through rigid corporate design but by means of graphical quality, versatile design approaches and meticulous printing.

The collection can be regarded as a brief history of both Swiss poster and Swiss graphic design. The whole range is covered: From the pictorial scenes used in the 1920s and the graphic and typographic solutions following the lead of the Russian Constructivists to the Swiss Style, which dominated the Swiss cultural poster until the 1960s, and more experimental approaches from the 70s. Today, innovative designs by young talents deliver surprising contemporary posters.