No Style. Ernst Keller (1891–1968) – Teacher and Pioneer of the Swiss Style. [English Ed.]

No Style. Ernst Keller (1891–1968) — Teacher and Pioneer of the Swiss Style by Peter Vetter, Katharina Leuenberger and Meike Eckstein, 2017. Triest Verlag, Zürich, Switzerland. English edition, 7.875 x 9.5, pp. 254 with 527 illustrated images. Excellent book design by Coande, Männedorf.

From Triest: Ernst Keller is often referred to as the father of Swiss Style, mainly due to the large number of students, who later shaped the movement and made it famous. Yet his achievements in poster design, lettering and graphic design in architecture and the development of non-academic didactic principles in design training also played a fundamental role. His teaching activities, starting in 1918 can be defined as one of the first systematic training programs for graphic design in the world.

Between 1918 and 1956 Keller taught many different designers including the protagonists of Neue Grafik or New Graphic Design: Richard Paul Lohse, Josef Müller-Brockmann and Carlo Vivarelli; and many other major contributors including but not limited to: Lora Lamm, Hermann Eidenbenz, Gérard Miedinger, Pierre Gauchat, Walter Käch, and Fred Troller. This diversity of talent is an impressive documentation to the openness, sustainability and rejection of dogma evident in Ernst Keller’s teaching.