This blog is a big fan of Herbert Matter’s work while in Switzerland in the mid-1930s before he moved to the United States. This brochure for Engelberg – the town where Matter was born in 1907 – was part of a campaign promoting his hometown. The image below is from a travel brochure in my collection issued as part of the campaign. The same image was used on posters, buy viagra sovaldi in print advertisements, discount viagra ampoule on postcards and poster stamps, medical which was the overall unified campaign.
Engelberg – Trübsee, by Herbert Matter, 1934, Front Cover
This image combines the classic photomontage that Matter employed in this period. The brochure is a beautiful combination of graphic design, photomontage,and typography all designed to visually advertise Engelberg. In fact, the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum just featured the poster version as the “Object of the Day” on its website on 5 April 2013. Ethan Robey noted:
“How can you not love that glove? It takes up nearly half the image, so bold yet enigmatic. The gloved hand and the face of the exuberant young woman are likely separate images, brought together—brought into meaning with each other—purely by their adjacency. The photomontage does not quite read as a coherent image, but as a set of concentric ideas, an image more potent than a single photograph of both objects could capture. Without explicitly showing any particular activity, the poster evokes modern technology, natural beauty and winter fun, linking them all to an idea of Switzerland.”
The next three images show the inside views and the back cover. There’s no photomontages here but the pictures of Engelberg, Switzerland are beautiful nonetheless.
Engelberg – Trübsee, by Herbert Matter, 1934, Inside View One
Engelberg – Trübsee, by Herbert Matter, 1934, Inside View Two
Engelberg – Trübsee, by Herbert Matter, 1934, Back Cover
