John Melin – Moderna Museet Posters
When my partner and I were travelling around Sweden, roughly ten years ago, we took a trip to Stockholm’s Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art). We weren’t really that knowledgable about Swedish design at the time, so were very excited to be introduced to the work of John Melin while we were there. The museum shop had a wonderful book of his work, that I still cherish, titled ‘till Example’, in which I learnt that Melin had become famous, in part, for creating Moderna Museet’s first graphic profile.Melin was one of Sweden’s key advertising gurus in the 60s and 70s and whilst creative director of advertising agency Svenska Telegrambyrån in Malmö, he produced much of the Moderna Museet’s collateral alongside his partner Anders Österlin. The ideas were Melin’s, the drawing, Anders Österlin’s, but they worked as a team and were actually called ‘anden’ and ‘handen’ – ‘the spirit and the hand’.
As well as this wonderful book, we picked up a reproduction of one of Melin’s iconic posters for Andy Warhol’s first exhibition outside of the US, which also took place at Moderna Museet in 1968.
The poster was part of a series, which we are very pleased to now be able to have for sale on Counter-Print, and is special for its stark, typographic approach. They neglect to include Warhol’s work at all and instead each contain one of Warhol’s famous quotes, set in one size and using only the typeface Falstaff.
According to Olle Granath, who worked as part of the team to create the exhibition, the idea for the posters came about as part of the editing process for the book of the exhibition. Granath was given a box, ‘almost the size of a Brillo box’, and was told it contained everything written by and about Andy Warhol. Granath’s job was to read it all and present a proposal to the exhibition team for a manuscript for the book.
His manuscript was handed to his colleague Pontus Hultén for approval and all was well apart Hultén’s concern that there was a quotation missing – ‘in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes’.
‘If it is in the material I would have spotted it,’ Granath exchanged. The line went quiet for a moment, and then he heard Pontus say, ‘if he didn’t say it, he could very well have said it, let’s put it in.’ And so, according to Granath, Warhol’s perhaps most famous quotation became a fact.
When it was time to make the exhibition posters Granath, Hultén and Melin decided to use the quotations from the proposed manuscript, instead of the customary reproduction of a painting. The museum produced a series of ten posters, each with a different quotation, in the hard-hitting and legible typographic style of Melin at the time.
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Libuše Niklová – Inflatable Toys
“In the future products from plastic matter will surround man just like the air and they will become commonplace. Increasingly, natural materials will be a luxury and the object of admiration. The future, however, belongs to plastic.” – Libuše Niklová
Bruno Munari – Faces
Bruno Munari (1907–1998) is seen as one of the most notable, experimental and eclectic Italian artists/designers of the 20th Century. His principles and beliefs were built upon his early involvement in the Futurist movement, which he joined at the age of 19 using the pseudonym 'Bum'. During the 1930s, Munari began to move towards Constructivism, particularly with his kinetic sculptures titled, ‘Useless Machines’ (1933), which were meant to transform or complicate their surrounding environments. After World War II, Munari also developed radical innovations in graphic design, typography and of course publishing, through the latter creating pieces he would term ‘Unreadable Books’.
Anyone that is a regular browser on Counter-Print will know that we are huge fans of his work. He’s the book designer’s book designer and contributed fundamentally to many fields of the visual arts, as well as publishing. What was always is in common with his work, however, is a wonderful sense of experimentation.
In his book ‘Alla faccia’, Bruno Munari created countless faces through different types of 'signs’. Each is different, yet they are all recognisable, demonstrating how a single concept can be infinitely expressed.
The designer was specifically concerned with finding how many ways and with what techniques the he could produce variations on the human face, as seen from the front.
Munari explained this experiment in ‘Design is Art’, describing how it can be related to graphic design as a wider practice. He explains that such a wide exploration can, ‘help the graphic designer find the image best adapted to a given theme’. According to Munari, ‘each image and technique has precise qualities of its own and transmits a certain message – a graphic symbol for a cosmetic cannot be the same as one for coal’.
This willingness to experiment and push a single theme to the limits of its elasticity is something that I’m sure will resonate with many creative people working today and certainly still represents the working practice of the contemporary logo designer – one who, as Munari says, ‘usually makes hundreds of small drawings and then picks one of them’.
It was with great delight that we heard these experimental faces were being officially reproduced in fine art print form for the first time. As such, we naturally had to add them to the site.
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Enzo Mari – Formosa Calendar
As well as being the designer of some of our favourite children’s books, such as ‘The Apple and the Butterfly and his ‘Drawing Paper’ series, Italian-born Enzo Mari is perhaps best known for his work across the fields of furniture and product design.
Enzo Mari (born 1932) is one of Italy's most significant designers. His work draws inspiration from both the idealism of the arts and crafts movement and from his political convictions. Mari trained at the Brera Academy in Milan, graduating in 1956. He studied decorative arts before moving into industrial and furniture design. Since that time he has produced a body of work characterised by an elegant functionalism and an experimentation with the aesthetics of shape. His work is much celebrated, having been displayed in a variety of art and design museums worldwide, including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Paris Louvre.
One of Mari’s most notable long-term partnerships is with the Italian design label Danese. The label was launched in Milan in 1957 by Bruno Danese and Jacqueline Vodoz and became known for producing contemporary pieces that fused together the language of graphics, photography and the visual arts. It created both small and large scale furniture and accessories for homes, offices and schools. Environmentally sound workplaces, materials and finished products are at the heart of its philosophy.
The ‘Formosa’ wall calendar is one of Mari’s most celebrated designs for Danese. The piece has become a real classic and was designed by Mari in 1963. ‘Formosa’ is a perpetual calendar and thanks to its timeless look is still an essential object for the home and office. The piece is incredibly graphic and displays a smart design that combines both visibility and easy use. Numbers, months and days of the week have been printed on metal slabs that are suspended on a support. You can turn them by hand, day after day, in order to form the correct date. This calendar is not limited to one specific year – it will show the day of the week for any date, whatever year it is.
A clever design combining ease of use and visibility, the Formosa is a great example of the form & function associated with Mari's design work and is included in museum collections around the world.
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Olle Eksell – Ogon Cacao
“Good design is not just aesthetic – it is also good economy. Good design is not just cool – it is bloody serious!” – Olle Eksell
Dieter Rams – Braun Calculator
It was with great delight that I heard of the re-release of the iconic Braun ET66 calculator. Like many designers, I was turned on to the design of its creator, Dieter Rams, due in part to the attention that was given to his influence on Apple.The ET66 calculator was given particular focus, with many comparing the iPhone calculator app design with that of the Braun model. It did, indeed, look surprisingly similar, although it has been somewhat modified since, and it came as little surprise, given that both Jobs and Ive used to admire the products and design philosophies of Rams – one of those being that, ‘good design is long lasting’.
It is fitting then that one of Braun’s most iconic products, the ET66 calculator from 1987, should get a recent re-issue. The ET66 was one of Braun's most loved designs and was collaboratively designed by Dietrich Lubs and Dieter Rams. Considered by many to be the pinnacle of the 'less but better' philosophy that Rams advocated, its simple, rectangular design with convex, circular buttons were inviting to fingers, while its clever use of colour distinguished functions from numbers – with the all-important equals button jumping out with a high-contrast, black-on-yellow scheme. A sturdy, hard-plastic slip case then insured it was kept safe and has also resulted in many original units surviving to this day.
It is fair to say that the Braun calculator has become an icon of modern design, launching a raft of imitators over the years and essentially establishing our collective understanding of a pocket calculator’s perfect form. As a mark of its success it can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Thanks to the smartphone in your pocket, you likely won't have a need for an old-school calculator, but if you appreciate minimalism and the beauty of simplicity in design, it’s a wonderful object to own.
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