Swiss Graphics Designer Max Huber

Profile of Max Huber

1.1 His Brief Introduction

Max Huber was an outstanding and influential Swiss graphic designer in the 20th century. In 1919, he was born in Switzerland, and in 1992, he died in Sagno, Switzerland. When he was 17, he had the opportunity to study in the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts which was very famous in Switzerland, because there were many outstanding teachers in this school, such as Otto Weber, Ernst Gubler, Heinri MŸller, Gottlieb Wehrli, Alfred Willimann and Walter Roshardt who were very outstanding in Switzerland. And when he studied in this school, Max Huber always spent much time to stay in the school library, because those outstanding teachers usually suggested that he should know and learn more knowledge about the experiments of Bauhaus-designers such as European abstract artists and russian constructivists by using the school library resources. And then, Max Huber as one of the great graphic designers began his professional pace, what should be pointed out is that Werner Bischof, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Carlo Vivarelli and Hans Falk gave him many creations help and inspiration in his formative years (Hollis, 2006).

1.2 His Work Experience

In 1935, Max Huber began his career in Zurich, at the beginning he worked at an advertising agency, and then he worked for the Emil Schultness at Conzett&Huber, at the same time, he met Max Bill and Hans Neuburg who were also the famous industrial designer and graphic designer. When he was at the age of 21 in 1940, the World War II broke out, in order to do not join the Swiss army, Max Huber moved to Milan (Italy). When he arrived at Milan, he could only stutter a few words using Italian. However, the stuttering did not disguised his talent, relying on a calling card which was seemed to be printed at the first sight, but the elegant card was made by the hand-drawn letters with their careful spacing through a closer look, that could deeply impress Antonio Boggeri, and then Antonio Boggeri decided to hire Max Huber. Therefore, he could smoothly join the Studio Boggeri. When he worked in the Studio Boggeri in Milan, Max Huber considered that illustration, painting, photography and printing could be fused in together, and little by little, by exchanging ideas with other same-age designers, he became the avant-garde artists and the leading exponent in term of the plane design field.

In 1941, Italy also entered the Second World War, so Max Huber was forced to be back to his motherland Switzerland, and between 1942 and 1944, he built the influential art magazine Du with Werner Bischof and Emil Schultness, and he also joined the Alliance Association of Modern Swiss Artists, and exhibited his abstract work with a group of modern Swiss artists at the Kunsthaus Zurich. However, when he stayed in Zurich, he could not forget Studio Boggeri and Milan, and he always thought that Studio Boggeri and Milan were so exciting and attractive, so he decided to be back to Milan as soon as possible. When the Second World War ended, he was appointed as the creative director by the Italian publisher Einaudi for the publishing house, so he could have the chance to contact with the post-war Italian intelligentsia, and at that time, he believed that the design had the ability to restore people’s beliefs and values in the aftermath of the Second World War.

1.3 His Design Concept

Max Huber always persist in their design idea, he never make use of his images in a strict sense, in order to convey a certain feeling of dynamism and speed, he always used the combination between unframed flat photographic and typographic elements with strips of color, and in his design, people could identify these elements which were not used to tell a story. By the use of bold shapes and primary colors, Max Huber’s work was focus on photographic experiments and clear type, and his strict work elements were easy to be identified. In addition, Max Huber preferred the clarity, rhythm and synthesis, and his work usually showed different hierarchical groups by the use of succinct texts, and so on. Anyhow, he never was influenced by fashion and other external factors, he had been insisting on his own ideas. Milan is an international metropolis, and Max Huber as a famous designer was usually invited to attend many international design-conventions, and he could be contact with other major designers by those international design-conventions or trips, and he fell in love with Takeshi Kono’s daughter and married her, Takeshi Kono was also one of the leading Japanese designers, Max Huber spent about two years in Japan. So, he could learn the different design ideas to apply in his works.

1.4 His Design philosophy

After World War II, Max Huber had been keeping the humanistic design belief, and with a variety of cultural influence in Milan, he designed a series of works using the design aesthetic utopia for enterprise and business promotion. It can say that Max Huber was the pioneer of utopia aesthetic. Utopia is a vision of mankind for a better society, and is also the best human society in human ideology as the same as the earlier “utopian socialism.” Utopia Esthetics is the use of people yearning for a better life to inspire people to dream (Freitas & Vieira, 2005). Max Huber’s design used and developed this concept, which made him achieve great success, so, in his design of future life, nowhere is the design of using this concept, and this humanistic conception of design received highly attention in Europe, his purpose was to rescue people from the war. In order to achieve his target, Max Huber has always insisted on being a freelance designer, and he always worked as the direct collaboration way with his client. He tried his best to create the balance between the demand of each client and his own demand (Campana, et. al., 2006). Even the clients proposed comparative funny request, he would try to meet the demand of clients, and if the advice had a little use, he would be willing to modify his plan. So, Max Huber always loved innovatory research, and always kept a lively curiosity to follow his ideal and faith.

2.0 Visual Analysis

2.1 Gran premio dell’ Autodromo Monza

In 1948, Max Huber designed the celebrated poster for the Monza Grand Prix, the name of the celebrated poster was “Gran premio dell’ Autodromo Monza”, and its size was 1400x1000cm, this work helped him win the first prize in the competition, and this work as the same as Max Huber was well-known all over the world. This work’s color was bright, and the content was simple and comprehensive, it truly and clearly displayed the Monza Grand Prix. Meanwhile, this work showed the stronger sense of hierarchy to attract people’s attention, which also represented Huber’s brilliant and innovative design; perfect arrow curve was very good to show circuit authenticity (ICONOFGRAPHICS, 2007). This work precisely and vividly showed his creation idea and design concept to people; it also released this modern design concepts and ideas; it was apparent that this work was showing his futurism inspiration. In a word, this work had lively format, bouncing color, fluent text, exquisite design and powerful sense of hierarchy, which could deeply attract people’s attention.

2.2 La Rinascente

Italy’s largest department store chain La Rinascente is located next to the Cathedral Duao Mo; La Rinascente means recovery, rehabilitation and re-production, which could also be consistent with Max Huber’s design concepts and aesthetic utopia. Max Huber worked for the department store La Rinascente from 1950 to 1954, in 1951, he designed the monumental work for La Rinascente, this work was named “La Rinascente” which was used for advertising, and its size was 295x205mm, and today, this trademark has been familiar with people all over the world. This work had also distinctive color, red, black and white were clearly distribution, and font also was concise and representative. This work could be firmly remembered, even if only once. In a word, this work could not only bring many commercial gains, but also change the masses’ feeling to La Rinascente and Milan visual scenery. It was more important that this work changed that era of collective memory (Campana, et. al., 2006).

3.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, through the analysis of Max Huber, it appears that Huber’s work was consistently innovative, and by combining painting and photography with other graphic media, he remained avant-garde throughout his career, bringing the utopian vision of the modern masters to bear on corporate typography and identity design. Many of his works are classic, and he made great contribution to modern aesthetics.