L'affiche Objet Sachplakat

Selection

Sachplakat and the origins of the Swiss Object Poster

Manoli, cigarettes

1910 – Lucian BERNHARD

The industrialization, the development of urbanism enhanced by the vehicular traffic and the fact pace city life, demanded advertisers to come up with new marketing eye -grabbing techniques. The elaborate Art Nouveau complexity was no longer effective since the passersby moved to quickly to appreciate the symbolism of Art Nouveau advertising posters.

The rejection of the ornamental Art Nouveau and the pursuit of new simplified and minimal illustrations aiming at inducing the consumption behaviour, generated the Object Poster as known as Sachplakat style. Poster Object could be defined as a verbal/visual technique that puts in the foreground the advertised object and its proper brand name. This simple and laconic stylization functioned as a mnemonic cue since passersby could easily read the mere declarative message.

Küenzlen

1930 circa – Ludwig HOHLWEIN

CHF 680.–

Lucian Bernhard in Germany pioneered this style approximately in 1905. Hence, German Object Posters propose simple shapes and objects/ products, bright colors, monochromatic background, and bold eye-catching lettering.

The beginning of the Poster Object in Switzerland

Before 1900, the graphic design expression in Switzerland was rather picturesque and traditional. At the beginning of the century, two famous Swiss artists Burkhard Mangold and Emil Cardinaux set the ground for the definition of the “Realism in Swiss posters”. However, their design style was still attached to iconographic and traditional illustrations.

Robert Hardmeyer, in 1904, managed to shake off this pictorial and traditional expression. His brilliant poster “Waschanstalt Zürich” is perceived as the genesis of the Swiss Object Poster - Sachplakat style. Despite the fact, that this poster depicts an anthropomorphic animal in a stainless white shirt, it reveals many characteristics of the Swiss Poster Object: focus on the brand name, shining colors, high quality printing enhanced by the lithograph in colors.

Blanchisserie "Waschanstalt, Zürich A.G."

1904 – Robert HARDMEYER

Hyper Realism and Swiss Object Poster style

Baumann, Fraumünsterstr. 17

1928 – Otto BAUMBERGER

CHF 2600.–

Almost after the WWI in 1919, the Swiss poster artist Otto Baumberger created the first illustration of a top hat “Baumann” giving, consequently, a clear and concise interpretation of the term Swiss Object Poster.

PKZ Qualité

1921 – Otto BAUMBERGER

CHF 2500.–

Four years later, he produces a second remarkable example of Swiss Poster Object. His illustration for the PKZ (clothing brand of Zurich) depicts a life – size coat with wool fibers and silk lining. The PKZ label is designed so realistically and vividly that the viewers assumed it was a photograph. These two posters function as a reference point for the history of posters and the graphic arts.

Binaca Zahnpaste

1943 – Niklaus STOECKLIN

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Niklaus Stoecklin demonstrates also his pure and refined artistic expression of Object Posters.

Artists of Swiss Poster Object evoked the hyper realistic nature of the object, living no space for abstraction or formal interpretation. Added to this, the printing technique of lithograph in colors, provided a flawless printing and a rich palette of vivid colors that intensified the hyper realistic compositions.

Binaca, Dents saines à l'éclat de perles

1945 – Niklaus STOECKLIN

CHF 2450.–

Consequently, Swiss Poster Object illustrating giant objects of everyday life, create a trompe l’oeil (deception of the eye) effect, suggesting the substitution of photography. The most remarkable example of Hyper realism in Swiss Object Posters, derives from Leupin poster “Savon Steinfels”, and precisely from the hyper realistic illustration of the water drop.

Savon Steinfels, rendement supérieur

1943 – Herbert LEUPIN

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Savon Steinfels, rendement supérieur

1944 – Herbert LEUPIN

CHF 1170.–

New

Savon Steinfels

1945 – Herbert LEUPIN

CHF 1470.–

Swiss object poster Object at Mid 20th Century

Since the beginning of the WWII until the early 1950’s the hyper realism of lithograph in colors increased its impact and became consequently a symbiotic part of the Swiss Object Poster style. As a result, Swiss Object Poster induced a magical and vibrant hyper realism. This fact, probably, occurred thanks to the universal language of symbols of the Sachplakat style eased by the Swiss sense of precision. Fours artists in Basel – Peter Birkhauser, Niklaus Stoecklin, Herbert Leupin and Donald Brun- embraced the Sachplakat style providing both playful and elegant lithographs in color. However, lithographic printing due to the high costs and slow production cycles was phased out in the 1950’s. Offset printing took the lead and prompted Leupin, Brun and many other Sachplakat artists to illustrate a humorous and playful style loosing, consequently, the reliance upon the rich colors and textures of lithography in colors.