Wilhelm Friedrich BURGER (Willy)
(1882 – 1964)
Wilhelm Friedrich Burger is a Swiss graphic designer and painter.
After an apprenticeship as a lithographer, Burger studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe with Ferdinand Hodler and A.M. Cassandre.
From 1903 to 1905, he worked as a graphic designer in London, then in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Rome in 1909. In 1906, he received a silver medal at the international exhibition in Milan and a gold medal in Brussels in 1910.
In 1913, he returned to Switzerland and worked mainly as a landscape painter and illustrator of books and magazines.
His work as a poster designer plays an important role in Burger's work. He is best known for his posters for "Saas Fee" or the "MOB" (Montreux Bernese Oberland) and particularly for one of his first works, the poster for the "JungfrauBahn", with 80,000 copies printed. This is followed by many other orders for posters, catalogues and postcards from all over Switzerland.
His poster for the electric railways "Martigny Châtelard Chamonix", which represents the valley in autumn, is clearly inspired by Fauvism.
He also created posters for the pen brand "Waterman", the watches "Zenith" , the soldier's homes, the PTT (Post Telephone Telegraph ) or AVS (Pension).
