Swiss International Style.

The Swiss International Style was something that came about in graphic design in the late 1950's. It was clean and sharp and direct, often not featuring any imagery at all. Either just text or single tone shapes. It used sans serifed typefaces and the text would often appear to the left or too the right, rarely centred. Famous artists from the time of the Swiss Style are Max Bill, Afrian Frutiger Josef Muller-Brockmann, Paul Rand, Jan Tschichold and many more. However although the style only really started appearing around the 1950's its origins can be seen in lots of other artistic movements that came before its time.

Akzidenz Grotesk - 1896

This is the name of a typeface that was released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1896. It was one of the first sans serifed typefaces to be widely used and was inspiration to a lot of people that were first designing when the Swiss Style came into swing.

Neoplasticism - 1917

This movement started in 1917 in the Netherlands and sought to bring peace and harmony and order. The work was completely abstract, using only the basic colours and shapes often using horizontal and vertical lines. Piet Mondrian is probably one of the most famous artists known for working in this style. 

One of Mondrians most famous paintings.

Bauhaus - 1919

The bauhaus was a college in Germany specialising in the arts and was famous for the specific styles of art that it taught and the work that came out of that. It influenced every aspect of design that be architecture, graphic design, interior design, art, typography even industrial. It was about keeping things simple and functioning and taking away all the ornamentation and frills, but still keeping it sleek and beautiful. 

Here is a picture of the Bauhaus school.

And here is the Bauhaus centre it Tel Aviv, the curved white walls are common features of bauhaus influenced architecture.