Self Promotion

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, founded in 1875 as the Kunstgewerbemuseum, has always conveyed its identity to the public using the tools of visual communication. Prime among these is the poster, the supreme discipline of graphic design. The museum’s exhibition posters project a recognizable identity in public space less by obeying corporate design rules than by taking risks and promoting aesthetic quality. These posters, developed in close collaboration between designers and the museum, must present the theme of the respective exhibition while also standing on their own as independent works. Thus over the course of more than a hundred years the museum has developed a poster collection that warrants its own edition, bringing together illustrious names ranging from Ernst Keller and Max Bill to Ralph Schraivogel.