Melchior IMBODEN

Melchior Imboden is one of the most important Swiss photographers and graphic artists of our time. His posters catch the eye with their dynamic compositions, colour contrasts and three-dimensional effects.

Like his photographs, his posters deal mainly with art, photography, music, culture or socio-political themes. They have been awarded numerous national and international prizes and exhibited worldwide. His works have been included in important permanent collections.

Melchior Imboden has taught at several universities in Switzerland and is regularly invited to give lectures and workshops abroad - in Essen, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, New York and Tehran, among others. He was a visiting professor of graphic design and photography at the University of Design Karlsruhe for several semesters and taught graphic design and photography for three years at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin.

As a graphic designer, he not only designs posters, but also book and catalogue covers.

THE POSTERS OF MELCHIOR IMBODEN:

Melchior Imboden's posters are printed in limited editions, usually in high-quality silkscreen.

In his posters, Imboden plays with typographic elements and geometric shapes, horizontal and vertical lines. He uses bright, contrasting colours as well as black and white, or overlays photography and typography.

Melchior Imboden is of course influenced by the Swiss tradition of design and graphics, but also by the work of the German minimalist painter and sculptor Imi Knoebel. Like Knoebel, Imboden explores the relationship between colour and composition. In some of his posters, he uses a palette of bright tones where the colour fields are integrated into the typography ("Essen wird Plakativer", 2011 or "Industrie Plakate", 2020). The juxtaposition of colour and typography gives the impression that the poster is three-dimensional.

This play with typographic elements makes the letters alive, dynamic, they are staged and become the very subject of the poster ("Plakat Kultur", 1999; "Weltformat", 2015 or "Borders", 2017). The use of a single giant letter is sometimes enough to illustrate the message ("Helvetica", 2007 or "Massimo Vignelli", 2022). Imboden also creates variations on the same theme, as in his posters for the Weltformat Graphic Design Festival in Lucerne in 2015: the composition and typography remain the same, only the colours change (one is in black and white, the other in colour), altering the perception of the poster.

Melchior Imboden also creates photographic posters using a variety of techniques: blurred effects, as in "Zeitbilder" in 1999 and 2005, juxtaposition of typography and photography, as in "Benjamin Hirte. The classic mob ballet" in 2012 or "East-West" in 2017, dominated by the giant letters E and W that correspond to the photos of Moscow and New York respectively.

In his poster for Engelberg ("Engelberg Titlis", 2015), Imboden quotes the work of the creator of the modern Swiss tourist poster, Herbert Matter. Everything, from the composition of the poster with the mountains and blue sky, from the choice of font for “Engelberg" or the character in the foreground, to the glasses in which the gondola is reflected, pays homage to the master of photo-montage. Like his predecessor, Imboden creates a contemporary image of the Swiss tourist poster.

Melchior Imboden in a few dates:

1956, born in Stans, in the canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland

1972, starts training as a decorator, while developing an interest in design and typography

1980, makes his first photographic works during a trip around the Mediterranean

1984, starts studying art and design at the University of Lucerne

1991, travels to South America where he takes photographs, many of which are now in the permanent collections of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Swiss Foundation for Photography at the Kunstmuseum in Zurich, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris

1998, becomes a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and president of the Swiss section from 2006 to 2010

2009, produces the book "Designer Portraits" (Niggli Verlag, 2009)

2018, receives the Master of Design Award in New York

2022, receives the Johann Melchior Wyrsch Prize from the Schindler Cultural Foundation for his life's work and the Duane Michals Award for photography from the MA-g (Museum of Avant-garde) in Mendrisio