Gute Möbel, Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich Exhibition [Good Design, Rudolf Bircher]

Gute Möbel by Alfred Altherr et al., 1961. Wegleitung 244, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zürich, Switzerland. 8.625 x 7.875, pp. 60 with German text only. Objective design by Rudolf [Ruedi] Bircher (SWB/VSG, Zürich); best known the Swissair logo he designed in 1958.

This Gute Möbel exhibition emerged as a result from a competition among Swiss furniture designs organized by the Association of Swiss Master Carpenters and Furniture Manufacturers. Held at the Kunstgewerbemuseum from November 11, 1961 — January 7, 1962; the catalog includes a Preface by Alfred Altherr, museum director and Introduction by Hans Siegrist, association president. With a short text re: the designer’s role (Die Aufgabe ds Entwerfers) by Willy Guhl, the pioneering Swiss furniture designer.

Heavily illustrated with (25) furniture entries featuring: desks, tables, chairs, cabinets, credenzas, beds, shelving and more. Each with a succinct descriptive text, designer and manufacturer information, elegant schematics and objective black and white photographs by the prolific Walter Binder (SWB, Zürich). The restrained typography, precise grid and functional schematics (by Fritz Schmocker, Zürich) make Bircher’s catalog design a fine example of the Zürich strain of Swiss graphic design.

A very good, lightly handled softcover with some rubbing to the covers and edges.