The brilliant “Washanstalt Zürich AG” Rooster from 1904 by Robert Hardmeyer could be considered as the source of inspiration for the "SachPlakat" posters. Even though it is an animal, it shows many characteristics of the object poster: one subject, just the name of the company, high quality paper and bright colors which were beautifully printed in stone-lithography.
In 1905 in Germany Lucien Bernard began to design many beautiful object posters, showing just the product (Stiller, Manoli, Boesh).

Since 1910 the "SachPlakat" style was developed in Switzerland by Masters like Otto Baumberger (the PKZ coat) Jacomo Müller, Otto Ernst or Charles Kühn.

In 1925 Niklaus Stoecklin in Basel created his famous wheel for the “cluser Transmissionen”. With this poster began the SachPlakat Basel school based around the printer “Wassermann”.

From the thirties to the fifties, great Artists such as Hans Handschin, Herbert Leupin, Peter Birkhauser, Fritz Bühler or Donald Brun produced many products posters, often for the Basel industry. They were the leaders of the Basel school and the hyperrealism. Their object posters are so beautifully printed in stone-lithography that the objects seam real. This oversized “reality” make them over the real, hyper-realistic. For that reason the "SachPlakat" Basel school style is also called “magic hyper-realism”.

These original posters from the golden age of the Swiss printers and designers, are now truly considered as work of Art and highly collectable. They are now in many collections and museums around the world. “For sure Andy Warhol was inspired by the Object posters”.

Other Artists of the Basel school:

HOFMANN Armin biography      (born in Winterthur in 1920)

Swiss avant-garde poster designer and graphic designer of the mid-twentieth century. 

After the kunstgewerbeshule in Zürich, he becomes lithographer. In 1948 he begin as poster designer in Basel and become one of the leading figures of the Basel School, one of the most enlightening movement of the Swiss School. He taught at the Basel School of Design from 1946 to 1986 and with his colleagues, he contributed to the development of the Swiss International Style. Since 1955 he was also teaching in different American Universities. In 1988 he received the Honory Award of design for Industry from the Royal society of Arts in London. Hofmann is well-known for his use of black-and- white images and photo-montage and by a simplification of forms creating an absolutly graphic expression. He created many avant-garde posters, mostly for Art festivals or Art exhibitions. A few of his posters won the Swiss Poster Award, they are now in museum collections and are prized by avant-garde collectors.

WEINGART  Wolfgang biography     (born in Konstanz in 1941, living in Basel)

Swiss avant-garde poster designer of the end of the XX century. From 1968 he was teatching Typography in the basel Art and Craft school (Schule für Gestaltung) making conferences and seminars on Typography in Europe and in the US. Every year the museums of the city of Basel present the new Art acquisitions of the year and ask Wolfgang Weingart to design the poster. The exhibition was called "Kunstkredit" ( credit found for Art acquiisition). He creates his own graphic expression in posters and magazine based on photo-montage, computers works and Typography. A few of his posters won the Swiss Poster Award, they are now in museum collections and are prized by avant-garde collectors.